Social Security and Conditionality: A Case Study of the Finnish Basic Income Experiment
Abstract
This article looks at how the overall conditionality of social security changed among basic income recipients during the Finnish basic income experiment. That experiment was mainly concerned to establish whether the receipt of basic income increases labour market activity, and therefore questions of unconditionality were not a major focus. The article applies the broad definition of conditionality proposed by Jochen Clasen and Daniel Clegg. Unconditionality is a crucial dimension of basic income and sets it apart from other forms of social security, highlighting the importance of studying how this principle is realized among basic income recipients. The research material covers the process from the design of the experiment to the implementation phase. The data consists of documents and register data on basic income recipients.
Our main finding was that even though basic income as such was unconditional, there were no or only marginal changes in the overall conditionality of social security among basic income recipients. However, the unconditionality or conditionality of basic income received little discussion when the experiment was being designed and the legislation drafted. One factor that hampered the decrease in conditionality was that a significant proportion of basic income recipients continued to apply for unemployment benefits or received conditional housing allowance and social assistance. Unemployment benefits and social assistance in particular are subject to strict eligibility criteria. It is argued that the replacement of basic unemployment benefits with partial basic income, as carried out in the experiment, does not significantly change the overall conditionality of social security among the lowest-income adults. Given the centrality of unconditionality to basic income, it is surprising how little attention it received in the experiment. The experiment shed only little light on the consequences that could be expected from the notably higher degree of unconditionality of
overall social security.
Authors
Antti Halmetoja, Paula Saikkonen, Miska Simanainen
Additional Information
- Peer-Reviewed: yes.
- Open Access: yes.
- Cite as: Halmetoja, A., Saikkonen, P., & Simanainen, M. (2022). Sosiaaliturva ja vastikkeellisuus: Tapaustutkimus Suomen perustulokokeilusta. Yhteiskuntapolitiikka, 87(5-6), 463-474. https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2022112466752
