While the Greece is currently the main focus of economical experiments, meanwhile in the land of wooden shoes the concept of basic income is getting an interesting treatment. Basic income being the social welfare model where everybody (presumably) gets a certain amount of money (per month) regardless of their situation.
It is going to be put into a test in Utrecht, Netherlands. This time it is not entirely political. 300 people living on welfare have been chosen and divided into groups. 50 of these people will receive something between 900-1300 (according to Quart's article). The idea is not to put basic income in use permanently, but to do an experiment to see if people will be "lazier" if they get free money. Local university is involved in the experiment.
Interesting part about this experiment is that there are two other groups as well. One which continues to receive benefits according to current legislation which is not that interesting, but provides a necessary comparison. The third group is the bomb. They have to earn their benefits through a system involving incentives to get rewarded. Think about a social welfare system were you would be required to do certain mundane tasks just to be considered receiving social benefits.
Of course there are requirements to be fulfilled before being eligible for social benefits in every country around the world. In Ireland to be eligible for Job seeker's allowance you have to have a certain amounts of job history behind you, you have to be unemployed, and you have to be looking for a job. I admit that it is not a lot that is being asked.
There are two reasons why this experiment's outcome could be criticized even before any final conclusions have been made. The amount of people participating is quite small. Only 50 people from 300 is participating in the basic income part. Sampling size is too small, and it is also too local to draw universal conclusions out of the outcome.
Secondly, all the selected people are already customers of the social welfare. Now the hypothesis of "people dropping out of job markets" is not included. I don't have any deeper insight in to this experiment as I was unable to find more details about the methodology that is being used. For starters I don't know how long the experiment will take. Will it last for a fixed amount of time or will it continue ad finitum and the sampling size is measured with the same questions every half an year or an year?
But we should be excited as this social experiment might give us actual information about how the basic income could and would affect behaviour. It will add much more weight to the debate concerning basic income than (politically) opinionated 'might-happens'.
Also check:
Independent: Dutch city of Utrecht to experiment with a universal, unconditional 'basic income'
Showing posts with label social welfare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social welfare. Show all posts
Monday, July 13, 2015
Sunday, June 24, 2012
How to get a PPS number
One of the main issues of living (or at least working) in Ireland, is attaining a PPS number. Number is a personal number for Tax office to calculate person's taxes. Number is also needed if a person wants to get a pension later on as well as all the other social security and health related issues.
Attaining the PPS number is basically really simple process with right documents. You need to have a valid identification like a passport or a driver's license (of course, this seems to be mandatory in every developed country) and a proof of address. The latter one is a bit trickier process. What substitutes for a proof of address is a matter of opinion, but a rental agreement, a letter from a landlord or a room mate, a some kind of utility bill (electricity, gas, garbage disposal) or a letter from your employer is kind of proof, and so valid, but these letters are put into consideration. You also need some easy to use leisure products like portable videogames, mp3 device, a book, a paper or your yoga mat. I'll come back to that later.
So your morning starts 9:25 at Kings inn street social welfare office. There are loads of people with lots of concerns awaiting with you and when the door opens at 9:30 they will all run upstairs for reasons unknown to man. Theory of Collective Intelligence might give us a hint of this behaviour. But your main concern is to avoid letting your instincts to push in and to stay downstairs. There's a perfectly normal desk calling for you on the first level and when this happens, you can let your instincts finally go loose. Use your muscles to achieve the desk and you will encounter two well behaving customer representatives ready to give you a ticket number as soon as you tell them that you're here for the PPS number and you have your ID and forementioned proof of address readily at your hand.
Now comes the hard part of using leisure products. Time usually seems to be in bullet time (see references from Matrix or any other action movie made in the next five years after the original matrix) when you're waiting. Hopefully you understand how to use your leisure products or that you at least have that special happy place located somewhere in your brain, where you can go anytime when a moment calls for it.
After almost using all of your leisure products, your number is up and you will have to locate yourself in a appropriate small booth. Process from there on is supported by two lovely officials which will give you two small papers to be filled out. If you get into any sort of trouble because of lack of understanding, the officials will help you anyway they can, or if the situation asks for it, you will be appointed to guardian, who will take care of you until you are suit to satisfy your basic needs on your own.
The first letter is about your personal details, like your name and a place of birth, mother's maiden name, etc. As stated before, if you can't fill out these for any various reason, there really should be somebody to take care of you. You might label me as a supporter of sustainable equality, for I think that is a good thing. The second letter is all about security questions which will be used if you need to be in contact later on about your PPS number.
After you are done, you will receive a letter delivered to your home address stating your PPS number in five days. You can also call the Head Office of PPS numbers the following day. Here you will need to recall your security questions, because that is the way you are identified from now on - ALL THE TIME.
Attaining the PPS number is basically really simple process with right documents. You need to have a valid identification like a passport or a driver's license (of course, this seems to be mandatory in every developed country) and a proof of address. The latter one is a bit trickier process. What substitutes for a proof of address is a matter of opinion, but a rental agreement, a letter from a landlord or a room mate, a some kind of utility bill (electricity, gas, garbage disposal) or a letter from your employer is kind of proof, and so valid, but these letters are put into consideration. You also need some easy to use leisure products like portable videogames, mp3 device, a book, a paper or your yoga mat. I'll come back to that later.
So your morning starts 9:25 at Kings inn street social welfare office. There are loads of people with lots of concerns awaiting with you and when the door opens at 9:30 they will all run upstairs for reasons unknown to man. Theory of Collective Intelligence might give us a hint of this behaviour. But your main concern is to avoid letting your instincts to push in and to stay downstairs. There's a perfectly normal desk calling for you on the first level and when this happens, you can let your instincts finally go loose. Use your muscles to achieve the desk and you will encounter two well behaving customer representatives ready to give you a ticket number as soon as you tell them that you're here for the PPS number and you have your ID and forementioned proof of address readily at your hand.
Now comes the hard part of using leisure products. Time usually seems to be in bullet time (see references from Matrix or any other action movie made in the next five years after the original matrix) when you're waiting. Hopefully you understand how to use your leisure products or that you at least have that special happy place located somewhere in your brain, where you can go anytime when a moment calls for it.
After almost using all of your leisure products, your number is up and you will have to locate yourself in a appropriate small booth. Process from there on is supported by two lovely officials which will give you two small papers to be filled out. If you get into any sort of trouble because of lack of understanding, the officials will help you anyway they can, or if the situation asks for it, you will be appointed to guardian, who will take care of you until you are suit to satisfy your basic needs on your own.
The first letter is about your personal details, like your name and a place of birth, mother's maiden name, etc. As stated before, if you can't fill out these for any various reason, there really should be somebody to take care of you. You might label me as a supporter of sustainable equality, for I think that is a good thing. The second letter is all about security questions which will be used if you need to be in contact later on about your PPS number.
After you are done, you will receive a letter delivered to your home address stating your PPS number in five days. You can also call the Head Office of PPS numbers the following day. Here you will need to recall your security questions, because that is the way you are identified from now on - ALL THE TIME.
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