Some of my thoughts on basic income and the welfare state from Finland:
I have about ~400 euros left after I pay my monthly bills.
The Finnish welfare system is totally broken. I live in a modest apartment and my monthly rent/water/electricity/internet bills do not exceed 450 euros. Unemployment- & housing benefits are more than enough for comfortable living, atleast in my town.
Unemployment benefits have a 20% tax in Finland, and a big part of that taxed sum is refunded to you at the end of the year. Being unemployed for a year, you get about 300 euro as taxrefund at the end of year.
Also, if you fuck up your monetary situation, you can write a sob letter to the welfare officials and get extra money if they deem it to be believable enough.
The problem with the current system:
Getting a low paying job in Finland is just not worth it because after your job income is taxed, you're left with a sum that's about the same as the regular housing & unemployment benefits. Plus, you also have to pay for commuting & gas, so that adds to your monthly fees, leaving you in a zero-sum situation. You basically net nothing for working & travelling around for eight to ten hours hours a day.
Also, your housing benefit is subject to change as your earn more. If you manage to get a raise and earn that 400 euro extra per month, that just means that your housing benefits will drop, leaving you alone to pay for the rent, without government support - leaving you, again, in a same zero-sum situation.
An unemployed person, who has little previous working experience, has to fight through two zero-sum situations before earning some sort of monetary gain.
If a basic income is implemented, it needs to be implemented so that an unemployed citizen could always take a job that is offered to him so that it lets him earn more, and never end up in a zero-sum situation when taking a job.
Either that or just stop handing out welfare alltogether, but that would lead to widespread rioting.