Basic Income and Basic Income Schemes: Definitions and Details

Abstract

A Basic Income scheme is a Basic Income, with levels for different ages specified, funding methods specified, and accompanying changes to tax and benefits systems specified. Different schemes can have very different effects: for instance, on affordability, on the redistribution of disposable income, on poverty, on inequality, on employment incentives, and on household gains and losses at the point of implementation.

If an author fails to distinguish between Basic Income and a Basic Income scheme, then their arguments either for or against a particular scheme can be taken, either by themselves or by others, as arguments for or against Basic Income, which they are not. Also, if an author calls a proposal a Basic Income when it is not one, then they and others might take arguments against the proposal to be arguments against Basic Income when they are not. Arguments for or against a particular Basic Income scheme are not necessarily arguments for or against Basic Income, and just one feasible Basic Income scheme in a context means that Basic Income is feasible in that context. Arguments for or against a Minimum Income Guarantee or similar mechanism are not necessarily arguments for or against Basic Income.

Appendix

The appendix of the original conference paper consisted of microsimulation research results on an illustrative Basic Income scheme for the United Kingdom. The appendix can be found here: https://basicincome.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Basic-Income-and-Basic-Income-schemes-definitions-and-details.pdf. A discussion of microsimulation research, and more up to date examples, can be found in Chapter 16 of this volume.