Finland has ended its two year trial of basic income, where 2000 unemployed people were paid €560 per month, the equivalent of roughly 900 Australian dollars, with no requirement to either seek or accept employment.
The trial, which aimed to examine if a basic income would reduce anxiety amongst the unemployed and simplify the welfare system, will not be extended and new legislation has been added to make some unemployment benefits contingent on the recipient undergoing some level of training or work.
Commentators have stressed that the trial was not a true test of universal income as the money was not enough to live on and was only given to a very small portion of the population.