Richard Drury/Getty Images
- Minneapolis’s guaranteed basic income program has shown promising results after a year.
- The two-year GBI program gives $500 monthly to 200 low-income families, no strings attached.
- Researchers found the payments boosted financial stability and didn’t cause recipients to work less.
The city of Minneapolis is experimenting with a guaranteed basic income program, and the preliminary results are promising.
Minneapolis has provided $500 monthly payments with no strings attached to 200 low-income families for the last year.
Numerous other cities nationwide have also tested basic income schemes among small populations recently. Many of them have seen success in alleviating poverty and homelessness — despite concern among some that such programs could cause vulnerable populations to stop seeking work , choosing instead to rely on the government.
A year into the two-year Minneapolis study, researchers and organizers said there is no evidence that the monthly payments have caused recipients to work less.