The B-MINCOME project. Municipal innovation on guaranteed minimum incomes and active social policies

Abstract

In recent years there has been a growing interest in implementing more effective public policies to improve the living conditions of people in vulnerable situations. To design and implement these policies they need to be backed up with evidence that facilitates wellinformed decisions. This need has given rise to B-MINCOME, a pilot project for fighting against poverty and inequality in the city's deprived areas developed by Barcelona City Council. In contrast to other, similar projects based on money transfers (in Finland or the Netherlands, for example), the B-MINCOME project consists in testing the efficiency and effectiveness of combining a cash benefit (Municipal Inclusion Support) with active social work inclusion policies in the Eix Besòs area. For the purposes of the study, 1,000 households have been selected and divided into different treatment groups and another 1,000 as a control group. The project started at the end of 2017 and is planned to last two years. Once it has finished, the results of the different treatment groups will be contrasted with those of the control group. The conclusions should provide information on which policies are the most effective for ensuring economically vulnerable and socially excluded people improve their situation (economic, educational, emotional, health, state of mind, etc.) and manage to cover their basic needs, while becoming more independent and reducing their dependence on other benefits.