Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of supporting basic income models in developing countries through International Development spending.
DFID supports cash transfer and broader social protection programmes in 16 of our bilateral country programmes, as well as in countries in the Sahel and Middle East and North Africa regions. We work with partner governments to help build sustainable social protection systems that are appropriate to the local context. Basic income as a type of social protection is a relatively new policy idea in application to developing countries. We are aware of previous and on-going pilots, and will consider the evidence for poverty reduction and sustainable economic growth as it emerges.