Streamlining

insights

Primary income-support welfare programs that could be consolidated into a single basic income include: earned income tax credit (EITC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), temporary assistance for needy families (TANF), and supplemental security income (SSI). The benefit of Medicaid coverage received by a newly insured adult is less than half what that coverage costs taxpayers, which is about $5,500 a year. In the UK, a UBI that replaces all other means-tested benefits would increase poverty rates for children, pensioners, and the working-age adults. In 2007, the U.S. spent $207 billion on means-tested welfare, and only lifted 9.7 million of the 37.3 million Americans living in poverty. Reducing welfare eligibility criteria from patchwork means-testing to solely on the basis of income as reported to the IRS should increase take-up rates, reduce stigma, and significantly cut administrative costs relative to the current safety net. In the state of Oregon, the cost of running the unemployment agency is about $500 per unemployed person per year.

sources

CRS Report: Welfare Spending [is] The Largest Item In The Federal Budget Why Cash is Better Than Expanded Health Insurance For the Poor Universal Basic Income Versus Unemployment Insurance Expanding the Discourse on Antipoverty Policy: Reconsidering a Negative Income Tax Universal Basic Income: An Idea Whose Time Has Come? Reweaving the Safety Net: The Best Fit For Guaranteed Income

authors

Jeff Sessions Amy Finkelstein Christian Zimmermann Stéphane Pallage Alice Fabre Luke Shaefer Elizabeth Rhodes Jessica Wiederspan

reports