NEWS

Safety income effective at income distribution and alleviating poverty

Date 2023-11-29 Writer seoulsolution

Forum to share the performance of current policies and comparing with basic income experiments of other cities
Inclusion in the budget allows for effective policy focusing on low-income earners and alleviating poverty
Seoul Safety Income Forum from Wed, Dec. 20 to Thu, Dec. 21 at DDP

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) announced that it held a special session on Seoul Safety Income at the 2023 KIEA Winter International Conference to discuss current social safety systems in Seoul, including Seoul Safety Income, and compare with income experiments implemented overseas.

Seoul’s “Safety Income” pilot program is a new welfare model based on Milton Friedman’s negative income tax where households that earn less than 85% of the median income (assets less than KRW 326 million) receive assistance equal to half of the household shortfall in meeting the standard median income.

In particular, the conditions for inclusion in the budget note that the level of wage efficiency (expanding supply and demand) for safety income and negative income tax (NIT) exceeds that of universal basic income (UBI) and other current welfare policies. It also shows that it is very effective from the perspectives of effective income distribution and alleviating poverty.

Meanwhile, the Seoul Safety Income Project: First-Year Annual Report will be presented on Wed, Dec. 20 and Thu, Dec. 21 at the Seoul International Forum on Safety Income held at DDP. Professor Esther Duflo, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in economics, will meet with Mayor Oh Se-hoon ahead of the opening ceremony of the forum to discuss the future of guaranteed income systems and safety income. Professor Duflo will also give the keynote speech at the forum and participate in discussions on the results of the annual report.

* Seoul International Forum on Safety Income 2023: www.sifsi.org