What happens if you can’t find any gigs and are generally struggling to make any money in the gig economy? You get £490 into your bank account.
That is what Finnish gig workers are now experiencing, where, in the country of Finland the government have decided to try out something called “basic income.”
Right now, as we speak, there are 2000 Finns, many of whom ply their trade in the gig economy, who are sitting at home and watching Finnish television.
Are they spending some time searching for new gigs? Who knows for sure, but what we do know is that with £490 going into their bank account, week in and week out, just like clockwork…then it doesn’t really matter if they find new jobs.
The officials behind this “basic income” plan have described it as a “safety net” for self employed people, where in this climate of gig working many people no longer have the security of contracts or a guaranteed wage.
However, while initially optimistic, the government of Finland have started to express their concerns about the whole concept.
“The eagerness of the government is evaporating. They rejected extra funding,” said a spokesperson for the project.
It is now understood that unconditional basic income will not be continued in Finland after 2018, although some experts have said that other countries might be giving it a try.
Countries such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark are thought to be in the process of offering some kind of guaranteed basic income for gig workers, and even the UK might be interested in giving it a try.
Back to Finland, and it appears that the basic income plan has been scrapped because the government didn’t want to fork out another £70 million to test the concept on employed people.
Not content with sending money to gig workers who were struggling to find clients, it seems that they also wanted to send money to people who already…had jobs.
Maybe the cold winter has frozen common sense in Finland, and now the Spring has started to thaw it back out again.
“Common sense wins the day in Finland,” could very well be the headlines on Newspapers tomorrow morning, but one does wonder what will happen in other countries.
Do they have common sense in Sweden, for example? Many think not, although our opinion is neutral.
All we care about is bringing you, the self employed contractors and freelancers of Britain all of the news we think you need to hear about.
If the UK government does start sending you free money in the future then are you going to complain? Probably not.
