Barbados plans universal income

Barbados Today

It appears that the Government is moving ahead with a plan to provide Barbadians with a universal basic income, which may come in the form of a “citizen’s dividend”.

Avinash Persaud, Special Envoy to the Prime Minister of Barbados on Investment and Financial Services, in a recent posting on Facebook, indicated that this was on the cards.

He suggested the “citizen’s dividend may be combined with the annual reverse tax credit to form some kind of universal basic income”.

A Universal Basic Income (UBI) is defined as a government programme in which every adult citizen receives a set amount of money regularly. The goals of a basic income system are to alleviate poverty and replace other need-based social programs that potentially require greater bureaucratic involvement.

“We are moving towards universal basic income across three fronts,” he said while commenting on the absence of a government representative on a panel discussion being hosted on the subject.

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