Key Finding: #4
Guaranteed income enabled shifts in employment by giving recipients the emotional and financial capacity for risk taking.
The $500 removed material barriers to full time employment and created capacity for goal setting and risk taking, once basic needs like food and utilities were covered.
“I think one thing is definitely risk. You can take so much risk. I - there was a time, I - the only reason I believe I got the internship was because of me taking the risk of not - of having to quit a job before and knowing that I have that money. I could sustain myself until this new opportunity came around, and I was able to take it. It was because I kept having to pursue it in the mornings, or I would have to be at work in the mornings. And, if it wasn’t for that money that was like coming in without me really doing anything, I don’t think I would have been able to get the internship.”
