basic income

basic income (usually uncountable, plural basic incomes)

1. Ellipsis of universal basic income., a form of social security in which all citizens or residents of a jurisdiction receive a sum of money, regularly and unconditionally.

   Synonyms: universal basic income, UBI

   • 2004, Ellen Hadley, One Dear Land, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 19:

     The second feature is the payment by the government of a basic income to all citizens, regardless of their private income or wealth. The amount of basic income should be the same for everyone, and should be calculated to be sufficient to […]

   • 2005, Guy Standing, Promoting Income Security as a Right: Europe and North America, Anthem Press, →ISBN, page 84:

     The questions to be raised are how processes of globalization, internationalization and economic integration affect national welfare states and what are the consequences for the basic income proposal.

   • 2014, Anthony B. Atkinson, Francois Bourguignon, Handbook of Income Distribution, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 2168:

     For example, replacing an existing tax-benefit system with a combination of a basic income and a flat tax such that no income fell below the poverty threshold would presumably result in large changes in many dimensions of behavior which […]

2. Ellipsis of guaranteed basic income., a form of social security in which all citizens or residents of a jurisdiction are guaranteed to have an income level at or above the set basic income cut-off level, whereby the government will top-off incomes falling below the line, to reach the limit. Those falling above the line would not receive payments.

   Synonyms: guaranteed minimum income, guaranteed basic income

• universal basic income on Wikipedia.Wikipedia