Unconditional basic income for all
Pilot Project Basic Income
The German Press Agency published on 18.08.2020 at 11 a.m. the announcement of an association (the name is known to the editors) in cooperation with an economic and another research institute (also known by name) that they would like to start a study to research the effects of an unconditional basic income as soon as one million voluntary participants resident in Germany who have reached the age of 18 register online.
As a fallback, it is stated that the drawing of the test persons and the placebo group (in order to be able to make a so-called representative survey, more than 1000 persons are needed, but the announced donations of the 'civil society', which is described as the client, only allow 120 paid participants) should take place on 17 November, regardless of the number of applications received by 10 November. As expected, 546 million applications had already been received by the editorial deadline.
The intention of the organisers of the game of chance was, since previous government attempts in Norway, for example, were aimed at low-income people, which was hair-raisingly unfair to the rich, to address every citizen this time. This did not work because people without access to the provider's website cannot even register and an e-mail address is required for registration, and the online reports are behind the paywalls of the publishers, to which a non-subscriber has no access.
Income versus gift tax
According to the organisers, the promised 1,200 euros per month is a gift without consideration under tax law (which is not quite true, as the participants' data and surveys are processed at six-month intervals) and is therefore income tax-free for employed persons and below the gift tax threshold. Only for persons without income from non-employment, such as pensioners and HartzIV recipients, who are explicitly not addressed to participate, it is considered an increase in income, thus becomes subject to assessment and conditions the discontinuation of benefits, cancellation of the non-contributory health insurance and, if applicable, pension insurance scheme and such trifles (see article).
Explanation on the website: 'the effects of an additional 1200 euros are being researched'. Hence also the reference that ALG II recipients are not favoured as usual.
Apart from these small errors of reasoning, the association has already announced in the communication prepared by every online and newspaper editorial office what it thinks of the fact that social benefits in Germany are tied to conditions (such as waiving basic rights like freedom of expression and movement (it is forbidden for recipients of social benefits to leave their place of residence without deregistering with the competent institution), human dignity or self-determination) and fuel mistrust, existential fears and demotivation.
They have also already calculated that so-called HartziV recipients among the 120 chosen will then have more money at their disposal, apart from the fact that they will of course no longer receive ALG II benefits and will be liable for income tax and radio licence fees and will have to take care of their 'voluntary' continued insurance; middle-income people will have more or less the same amount of money at their disposal and higher earners will presumably have to pay more taxes than they receive as a gift from the association.
The question arises as to what should motivate anyone outside the unmotivated HarztIV community to take part in the study, but the criticism of giving something to the needy cannot be dismissed out of hand in our society. Every big shot who earns more per month than a social parasite can spend in two years knows better anyway how to increase his wealth that citizens willing to donate gladly distribute to them in the name of science.
Well thought out and socially competent
A small drawback: there is no legal entitlement to the gift designated as a gift, and the indication that the sum is below the taxable amount also does not coincide with the fact that higher earners would not benefit from it.
There are said to be over 140,000 private donors who would have agreed to finance the project for the planned duration of three years. The state or other public agencies will not participate because there is no certainty that the well-intentioned donors will not themselves slip financially during this time and become welfare recipients.
In order to save the project, the 120 people will be asked to support the donors by paying back their unconditional income, which exceeds the subsistence level. Then the job centre and other institutions similar to public authorities will gladly step in. After all, it's only 120 applications that then have to be approved again in a rush procedure, so that the people who would like to rely on it can breathe a sigh of relief for a while and no longer have to worry every month how much money will be left at the end of the month.
So in every respect, well thought out and unconditionally promising. We are curious to see whether the result of the study, which is already set out on the website, will match in 2024.