The international press seemed to get hold of this last week and the early coverage pointed to a Dutch article with far more direct quotes [1]. My Dutch is poor but my understanding is that the primary aim is as much (if not more) about reducing administrative burden as it is about basic/universal income.
Also, I haven't seen any coverage in the mainstream Dutch press... which is somewhat telling.
Here's a quick translation (I tried to do it correctly, but didn't want to spent too much time on it)
Utrecht starts experiment with basic income.
16-06-2015 • 10:15
Everhardt2
After the summer holidays Utrechts starts an experiment around the basic income. Counciller Victor Everhardt from "Work and income" likes to see if a basic income principle works in practice.
"It would be more simple if the system is again based on trust."
Why this experiment?
I have been counciller "Work and Income" for a year and I think that it's a sign of civilisation that people who, usually temporary, but sometimes also longer, cannot take care of their income get social security benefits. At the other end of that system we have built up a huge verification system, often based on mistrust.
People with benefits usually have to take into account a large number of rules, like welfare, special welfare, rent assistance, children welfare etcetera. All these systems have their own verification mechanisms. There's a forest for the trees amount of rules and verification methods. It's quite easy to get stuck here. It would be a lot simpler if we could base the system again on trust.
People could abuse this and not go to work?
From our data it appears that less then 1.5 percent abuses the welfare payments system.
However, before we get into all kinds of principle debates about should we do this or not, we would like to research how a basic income system works.
What happens if somebody gets a monthly payment without additional rules and verifications? Will such a person go sit at home passively or is that person more motivated to develop him/herself and make a meaningful contribution to our society with paid or voluntary work?
How are you going to research that?
Together with the University of Utrecht we have designed an experiment at which people who live on welfare get to meet specific regimes. For example a group that works with rewards and 'jobs' for a payment, another group with a basic income without any additional rules and of course a control group that lives by the current rules.
And are you allowed to do this from the minister?
We have verified this at official level to see if an experiment with a basic income is possible and we have not yet heard "njet". In addition, minister Plasterk of internal affairs has announced that cities should get more room to experiment with existing law.
We think the basic income is very suitable for this.
When does the experiment with basic income start?
End of June we have an expert meeting about basic income with other cities that also have plans into the same direction, like Nijmegen, Wageningen, Tilburg and Groningen. Together we can make our call for more room of possibilities for cities stronger. In addition we like to start with the experiment in the second half of this year.
Also, I haven't seen any coverage in the mainstream Dutch press... which is somewhat telling.
[1] http://destadutrecht.nl/politiek/utrecht-start-experiment-me...