The FINANCIAL - Fighting poverty with cash finchannel.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from finchannel.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
is Mashable s deep dive into Universal Basic Income â an idea gaining currency in a time of pandemic and mass unemployment. Now more than ever, our future depends on whether we can pay the bills.
Raise your hand for a vote: Option #1 means getting a lump of cash deposited into your bank account every month, no strings attached. Option #2 means.not getting that cash.Â
Which would you pick? We re guessing you d take the money.
Two radical concepts growing in the mainstream consciousness â universal basic income and guaranteed minimum income â represent some version of just giving people cash.Â
As political interest in cash transfers builds, it s become increasingly important to understand the differences between universal basic income and guaranteed minimum income. After all, the differences â and similarities â between the two could one day determine whether or not you re getting more stimulus-like checks in the future.Â
Beyond the pandemic
May 3, 2021
The Center on Social Policy at Columbia University has estimated that the American Rescue Plan will cut the child poverty rate by as much as 56 percent this year, which would affect children of all races. The poverty rate for Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous children, who are disproportionately affected by both poverty and Covid-19, would decline by 52 percent, 45 percent and 61 percent percent, respectively. However, as the Children’s Defense Fund’s Director of Poverty Policy, Emma Mehrabi, cautions, “Th[is] data will only live up to its projections if families – especially the hardest to reach – know about the benefits [offered through the plan] and can easily access them. So we need to make sure that families and communities on the ground are aware of this program, and we need to work aggressively to get them signed up.”
All the cities testing free money programs
Cities across the country are testing the waters for guaranteed income and universal basic income programs.
Image: Getty Images
2021-05-03 10:00:00 UTC
Even as the U.S. economy starts to trend upwards, the promise of Universal Basic Income (UBI) isn t being ignored. Cities across the country keep announcing new free cash programs for residents as recently as last week. This page, which we will update regularly, will help you keep track.Â
The idea gained relevance in 2020, as millions of households coped with the financial impact of the pandemic. Many cities are testing out guaranteed income programs â similar in principle to UBI, but offered to a select portion of a city s population instead of all residents.Â
Addressing Child Poverty Beyond the Pandemic
Illustration by Ada daSilva/Getty Images
The economic impact of the pandemic has created an opportunity for the federal government to reconsider its traditional responses to poverty and unemployment.
Apr 29, 2021
In the Frontline documentary “Growing Up Poor in America,” 13-year old Ohioan Shawn and his mother and baby sister were subsisting on $885 a month in benefits during the early days of the pandemic half in food stamps and half in rent assistance for their trailer. Shawn’s mother had been diagnosed with kidney disease, yet still had to risk exposing herself to COVID-19 by “working off” hours required to receive her benefits at the local Salvation Army. Shawn tried his best to help at home as a so-called “brother-father” to his younger sibling. This included taking her to get free lunches for school-age kids at McDonald’s. “To climb out of poverty is probably a really hard struggle,” Shawn says in the course