HELSINKI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th May, 2020) A two-year test to see how an unconditional basic income affects the unemployed in Finland has revealed that people feel happier but the jobless rate stays the same.
The government's social insurance agency Kela paid 2,000 randomly selected participants 560 Euros ($605) per month from January 2017 to December 2018. The final results of the study were published Wednesday by the Social Affairs and Health Ministry.
"All in all, the employment effects were small. This indicates that for some persons who receive unemployment benefits from Kela the problems related to finding employment are not related to bureaucracy or to financial incentives," lead researcher Kari Hamalainen said.
Participants said they were more satisfied with their lives and experienced less mental strain, depression, sadness and loneliness, the ministry said. At the same time, for those who were in a difficult life situation before the trial the handouts did not change much.
Aino-Kaisa Pekonen, the minister of social affairs and health, argued that the experiment � the world's first nationwide and non-voluntary one � was not a waste of time and money as insights gleaned from it could be used to reform the social security system.
