At the end of last year we sent the members of the Committees for Social Security and Health of National Concil* (CSSH-N) our detailed dossier on the Unconditional Basic Income initiative. This Commission will be continuing to consider the initiative at its next meeting, scheduled for 19-20 February 2015.

With the dossier we enclosed a cover-note, reproduced below, suggesting that the deputies commission a thorough study examining the possible effects of the introduction of a basic income. Such a study should in principle have been carried out by the Government before sending the initiative on to the Parliament, but it still has not been done, even though it is essential for the Parliament and later on the voters to have a satisfactory basis for their decision.

* National Concil is the lower house of parliament

Text of our message to Members of Parliament:

Our association founded in 2001, whose purpose is to promote the basic income is part of the active network that carries the Federal Initiative "For an unconditional basic income." It asks you to find a link to a detailed information document on the initiative drawn to your attention.

The introduction of a basic income would be a significant change for our society. Faced with this proposal, two approaches are possible: either decide immediately that such change is unacceptable, in which case we throw away the possibility without really examining it, or admitting that, in the state of our current knowledge, it is impossible to predict whether the change will have positive consequences or any other alternatives. The latter approach needs imperatively to request a study to examine and carefully model the possible effects to make the right decision. In the development of his message of August 27, 2014, the Federal Council has unfortunately clearly confined to the first approach.

We believe that some problems in our society are structural and they call for a rapid reform of our country. Our belief is that the basic income is considered as a relevant solution. We respectfully propose to Parliament to compensate for the missing information in the message of the Federal Council and to mandate the necessary serious study that will allow you to make a decision knowingly.

In the hope that our enclosed information pack will inspire you to request this study, … (greetings).

Basic income presentation (our dossier of full information, 25 pages, FR, PDF)

Note: Please come back soon to access to the full English translation of the dossier.