For an Unconditional Basic Income (Volksinitiative Grundeinkommen) — 2016 National Referendum
A citizen-launched popular initiative that forced Switzerland's first-ever national referendum on universal basic income, held June 5, 2016. The proposal asked voters to add a constitutional mandate for the federal government to introduce an unconditional basic income for everyone, without specifying an exact amount, though campaigners floated a reference figure of roughly CHF 2,500/month for adults and CHF 625/month for children. Voters rejected the initiative decisively, 76.9% to 23.1%, on turnout of about 46%. Because it failed, no UBI program was ever implemented, funded, or disbursed in Switzerland as a result of this vote. The event is catalogued here as a landmark policy referendum, not as an operating direct-giving program.
Referendum, Rejected, National Vote, First National UBI Referendum, Switzerland, Policy Only, No Pilot
Headquarters
- Organization Name
- Verein Grundeinkommen (Basic Income Association)
- City
- Basel
- State / Province
- Basel-Stadt
- Country
- Switzerland
Contact
Status & Funding
- Organization status
- Active
- Program status
- Inactive
- Number of recipients
- 0
- Funding type
- Nonprofit
Benefits
- Currency Type
- Fiat
- Payment frequency
- Monthly
- Benefit details
Never implemented. Campaign materials referenced an illustrative, non-binding figure of about CHF 2,500/month (~USD 2,550) for adults and CHF 625/month (~USD 640) for children, but the constitutional text itself set no amount, funding source, or phase-in mechanism — those were left for future legislation had the vote passed.
Eligibility
Overview
- Eligibility details
Never implemented. The initiative envisioned coverage for all persons in Switzerland, replacing means-tested benefits with an unconditional payment, but no formal eligibility rules, residency requirements, or means tests were ever enacted since the measure failed at the ballot.
Geography
- Countries covered
- Switzerland
Application Process
- How to apply
NA — no program was implemented; the initiative was a constitutional referendum decided by national popular vote, not an application-based benefit.
- Selection process
NA — determined by binding national referendum (all eligible Swiss voters), not individual applicant selection. Result: rejected 76.9% No to 23.1% Yes, ~46.3% turnout (2,465,868 of 5,325,848 registered voters cast ballots; 568,905 Yes votes).
