What is Guaranteed Income
What is Guaranteed Income?
Guaranteed Income (sometimes called Guaranteed Minimum or Guaranteed Basic Income) is policy that would allocate to every member of a community subsisting below the income floor, an unconditional payment that raises them above this basic income threshold, regardless of their employment status or other circumstance. Many believe the income floor should be the federal poverty line, which is about $13,000 per year or about $1,000 per month for a 1 person household.
What is a guaranteed income pilot, sometimes called a cash transfer pilot or demonstration program?
Unlike a permanent program, guaranteed income or cash transfer pilots are programs typically targeted to specific groups. In addition to having the goal of helping the recipients in the pilot, they often also have goals to document the ways in which the program helps people. For example, a pilot could be used to test the hypothesis that parents experience lower levels of stress if the family receives regular guaranteed income payment.
Are there any pilots in the US right now?
Yes. For example, Let’s GO DMV is a Washington, D.C. region program that has been running since 2022 paying $1000 a month to 75 displaced hospitality workers. And in Washington DC, THRIVE East of the River boasted a privately-funded program paying $1,100 to nearly 600 households for 5 months spanning 2020 and 2021.
There are several pilots in place in the DC Region.
Where can I learn more?
See these sources:
- In 2022, the Urban Institute released a study of the DC-based pilot THRIVE East of the River.
- In 2018 the Washington DC Council produced a report about Approaches and Strategies for Providing a Minimum Income in the District of Columbia.
- You can read more about guaranteed income at the Mayors for a Guaranteed Income.
What is the impact of direct payments on the existing safety net benefits of guaranteed income participants?
Known as the “benefits cliff”, raising a public benefits recipient’s income can lower their TANF, SNAP, or housing subsidy. DC Guaranteed Income Coalition is working with allies, local, and national, to explore and support measures and policies to mitigate and indeed eliminate negative impacts on their social safety net benefits. As residents and workers seeking economic mobility, no- and low-wage people deploy much-needed cash, food, health, and housing benefits to shore them up in times where funds run low and hard-earned dollars do not stretch sufficiently. We welcome your involvement in our study of these issues and your support for advocacy to make the needed policy changes to address them.
Who should receive guaranteed income funds?
We support the provision of guaranteed income to individuals below the income floor established by the community. We also support racial equity and believe that guaranteed income policy can level the racial income and wealth gap. Finally, in distributing guaranteed income pilot funding, policy-makers should implement an equitable selection process to provide payments to individuals in a variety of circumstances.
Who should fund guaranteed income pilots? Why are we asking the Mayor to be involved?
We support funding for guaranteed income pilot programs as a path to a permanent guaranteed income policy. Short term funding for direct cash pilot programs should be directed through public and private funding sources. Mayor Muriel Bowser, like leaders of 100 cities to date, should join the movement to liberate people in poverty by putting cash into their pockets. Joining Mayors For a Guaranteed Income is a commitment to exploring to what extent guaranteed income should be provided to everyone or to a targeted group. The DC Guaranteed Income Coalition is committed to a process of targeted guaranteed income and to ensuring that recipients of guaranteed income pilot payments have their benefits protected.
What is the goal of guaranteed income pilot advocates long-term?
As cash pilots further demonstrate the social benefit of direct cash to address the effects of poverty and its related ills, we believe public funding should be directed toward a broader and permanent guaranteed income policy. Pilot programs help individuals experiencing poverty and further public debate, exploration of transformative anti-poverty and anti-racist policy, and build support for guaranteed income. The DC Guaranteed Income Coalition grounds our advocacy in intersectional collaboration, racial equity, and sustainable decision-making across communities of residents, allied groups, and stakeholders.
What is the history of guaranteed income in the U.S?
Guaranteed income was widely debated during the Nixon Administration, and Black activists from welfare rights organizer Johnnie Tillmon to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. linked it to the struggle for racial economic equality. More recently Stockton, California Mayor Michael Tubbs and Springboard to Opportunities CEO Aisha Nyandoro forged its return to national prominence by giving cash payments to lower-income residents and saw promising results.
Where are other guaranteed income programs?
There are several guaranteed income pilot programs running throughout the DMV area. In Maryland there are direct cash pilot programs in Baltimore, Prince George’s County, and College Park. In Virginia, direct cash pilot programs are in Alexandria, Arlington, and Richmond.
