UBI Programs

United States

Yolo Basic Income (YOBI) was a two-year guaranteed income pilot run by Yolo County's Health and Human Services Agency for families with a child under six (or pregnant) who were already enrolled in CalWORKs or the CalWORKs Housing Support Program and experiencing homelessness. From April 2022 through March 2024, roughly 54-55 preselected households (76 adults) received an unconditional monthly stipend, averaging about $1,289, calibrated to bring the household to $1 above the California Poverty Measure. Payments came with no added work requirements or means test and were paired with existing CalWORKs case management. The pilot was funded through a public/private mix including Sutter Health, Sierra Health Foundation, the state Office of Child Abuse Prevention, First 5 Yolo, Kelly, Stuart, and Travis Foundations, and Yolo County cannabis tax revenue. UC Davis's Center for Regional Change designed and evaluated the program.

United States

YALift! (Young Adult Louisville Income for Transformation) was a guaranteed income pilot led by Metro United Way in partnership with Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI), Louisville Metro Government, Russell: A Place of Promise, and YouthBuild Louisville. Launched in 2022, the single-cohort pilot provided 151 young adults ages 18-24 living in the Smoketown, Russell, and California neighborhoods (areas of concentrated poverty) with $500 per month for 12 months, totaling $6,000 per participant with no strings attached. The program was funded through private/philanthropic support raised by Metro United Way. It included a research and evaluation component intended to measure impacts on financial stability and wellbeing.

United States

This is one of four county-run Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI) pilots operated by Santa Clara County, targeting young parents (ages roughly 14-26) who are pregnant or caring for young children and who have had contact with the child welfare or probation systems. Roughly 98 selected participants receive $1,200 per month, unconditionally, for 24 months via prepaid debit card, while a larger comparison group receives supportive services and research compensation instead of cash as part of a randomized controlled trial. The program is funded by the County of Santa Clara (with prior GBI cohorts drawing on ARPA, General Fund, state, and philanthropic dollars) and is administered by the Office of the County Executive in partnership with Probation, the Department of Family and Children's Services, and Public Health. It builds on the county's original 2020 guaranteed income pilot for former foster youth, aiming to improve child care access and generational outcomes for young families.

South Korea

The Gyeonggi Youth Basic Income is a province-run, unconditional cash transfer paid to every registered resident of Gyeonggi Province in the calendar year they turn 24, regardless of income, employment, or education status. Recipients receive 250,000 KRW (~$170) per quarter, up to 1,000,000 KRW (~$680) per year, issued as local currency usable only at small businesses in their home city/county. Applicants must have lived in Gyeonggi continuously for 3+ years or cumulatively for 10+ years. Piloted in Seongnam in 2016 and expanded province-wide in 2019, the program continues in 2026, though Seongnam and Goyang have withdrawn local funding since 2024-2025.

United States

The Youth Cash Transfer Study was a 2020-2021 randomized controlled trial run by the Rooted School Foundation, providing unconditional weekly cash payments to 12th-grade students at Rooted School New Orleans. It was designed and evaluated in partnership with researchers from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the University of Pennsylvania, home to the Center for Guaranteed Income Research, and was funded through private philanthropic donations to the nonprofit. The pilot served as the origin point for what later grew into 'The $50 Study,' a much larger multi-city cash transfer research program for high schoolers. Findings from this initial pilot were published in the 'Youth Cash Transfer Study Report' in May 2022.

United States

The Youth Empowerment Program (YEP) is a guaranteed income pilot launched July 1, 2024 by Unity Care, a foster-youth nonprofit, in partnership with the City of San Jose. It provided 51 homeless or at-risk-of-homelessness young adults in San Jose, most of them former foster youth, with $1,100 per month for 18 months alongside 1:1 coaching and financial literacy workshops. The program was funded through the City of San Jose partnership and administered by Unity Care, with Excite Credit Union supporting financial coaching and direct deposit. Disbursements were scheduled to run through December 2025.

Uganda

The Youth Opportunities Program (YOP) was a Government of Uganda initiative, launched in 2006 as a component of the World Bank-funded Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF), that gave one-time unsupervised cash grants to self-formed groups of poor, unemployed young adults in war-affected Northern Uganda to fund vocational training and start-up tools for skilled trades. Due to oversubscription, 265 of 535 eligible applicant groups were selected by lottery to receive grants, forming the basis of a landmark randomized evaluation by Christopher Blattman, Nathan Fiala, and Sebastian Martinez (with Innovations for Poverty Action / J-PAL). Grants averaged about $374-$400 per group member. The program significantly raised assets, work hours, and earnings after 4 years, though these gains largely converged with the comparison group by year 9.

United States

YouthNPower: Transforming Care is a youth-designed direct cash transfer pilot for young adults who aged out of New York City's foster care system, run by a collective of the Children's Defense Fund-New York, the CUNY Graduate Center's Public Science Project, the Center for the Study of Social Policy, and New Yorkers For Children. Launched in 2023, it provided 100 randomly selected participants aged 18-22 with $1,000 per month in unconditional cash for 12 months, distributed via New Yorkers For Children. The pilot combined a Participatory Action Research inquiry led by youth with lived foster care experience, an independent quasi-experimental evaluation by NYC's Center for Innovation through Data Intelligence, and youth-led organizing for permanent guaranteed income policy. It is described by CDF and partners as the first direct cash transfer pilot in the U.S. designed by and for young people who aged out of foster care. Findings on employment, well-being, and reduced justice-system contact were published in 2025.

United States

YSEQUITY is a guaranteed income pilot run by the Yellow Springs Community Foundation for residents of the Village of Yellow Springs and Miami Township, Ohio, providing $300 per month for 24 months ($7,200 total) to eligible households. It launched in November 2022 with first payments made in January 2023, starting with 30 participants, and has continued as a recurring program adding 15 new participants each spring and fall since. It is funded by private donors and the Community Foundation (with initial startup funds from a Greene County ARPA grant) and is studied in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania Center for Guaranteed Income Research and The Ohio State University. As of May 2026 the program had distributed $402,000 to 70 residents since inception, and it is described in program and press materials as the first documented village-scale guaranteed income program in the United States.

United States

Zero Babies Homeless began as a Samuels Group/HOMEworks initiative (with input from lived-experience advocate Kadisha Davis) to end infant homelessness in New York City through unconditional cash and peer support. It evolved into Growing Strong, an unconditional cash transfer and peer-support pilot operated by WIN (Women In Need), New York City's largest family shelter provider. The program provides eligible families with babies under two in WIN shelters up to $1,500 per month for 24 months via debit card, funded by a private foundation grant and studied as a research trial sponsored by Vanderbilt University (launched May 2024). A comparison group of 100 families receives a nominal $50/month, and a third group is tracked only through administrative records. Participants can spend funds however they choose, and the active cash group may also opt into free peer support services.