Guaranteed Income

Legacy safety net programs in the United States are inefficient and inadequate in supporting the financially insecure – a reality made painfully apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ample research has shown that unrestricted cash assistance can not only alleviate material hardship among the most vulnerable but also improve physical and mental wellbeing, child welfare, educational attainment, and more. Decades of advocacy and research into guaranteed income – whether a universal basic income or direct cash transfers through the tax system – offer a vision for a government whose support is more universal, less administratively burdensome, and more respectful of the dignity of ordinary people.

Since 2017, before the concept gained mainstream recognition, JFI has evaluated the feasibility of unconditional cash transfers and how they might be best situated among existing aspects of the social safety net in the United States & abroad. We have helped build guaranteed income pilots; conducted field evaluations on the efficacy and impact of cash programs, including the world’s largest in Maricá, Brazil; advised state and federal lawmakers on relevant legislative reforms, including the federal Child Tax Credit (CTC); and provided expert commentary to media and advocates on the state (and the future) of the field. Most recently, we have begun to sketch a vision for how the now myriad guaranteed income demonstrations can be translated into sustainable policy – and thereby help address our nation’s deepening inequality.

PARTNER WITH US

While JFI continues to share design and strategy expertise with pilots, we are increasingly focused on policy design: how cash transfers can make our social safety net work better for the working and middle classes, and what financing mechanisms can help sustain them. To that end, we provide policymakers (mayors, state legislators, economic development teams, etc.) and advocates with policy analysis, including microsimulations of proposed legislation and studies of interactions among existing programs. We are eager to partner with individuals or institutions to extend this work internationally – and to expand our field of study beyond traditional guaranteed income / UBI into other social programs (e.g. housing, healthcare) where the principles of unconditional cash may be beneficial.

PARTNERS

• The Compton Pledge

• Maricá Basic income evaluation

• The Freiburg Institute for Guaranteed Income Studies

• ABC COALITION

• INCOME MOVEMENT

• URBAN INSTITUTE TAX POLICY CENTER