Utrecht, the city located in the central Netherlands, is set to launch a new sociological experiment to understand whether or not the community members would benefit from a universal, unconditional income.

Working with the local university, city officials has worked to find a base level of income that every person in Utrecht will receive that is workable in everyday life, and will formally begin to experiment with the concept at the end of the summer.

The basic income idea is a universal form of payment that individuals receive unconditionally, to be used to cover the cost of living. Officials hope that by guaranteeing Utrechters a base income, they will be freed up to work more flexibly in their professional lives, foregoing long working hours to make more time for voluntary work, caring for family, or study.

The study will work by offering a select number of citizens the living income as a form of social welfare, and a conclusion will be reached on how successful a requirements-less welfare system works.

Utrecht’s unusual proposal is par for the course in a country where non-traditional approaches to work and employment are commonplace; across the EU, the Dutch represent the highest proportion of part time workers, with 46.1 percent – more than double the Irish rate of 22.2 percent according to Eurostat.

Utrecht is also urging other cities across the Netherlands to consider running trials of their own, and is awaiting permission from the federal capital The Hague to see if Nijmegen, Wageningen, Tilburg, and Groningen can also run their own versions of the universal income experiment.

On this evening’s The Right Hook, George talks to Utrecht’s Alderman for Work & Income, Victor Everhardt, about the proposal and how the trial works. Tune in live from 6pm or listen back to the show’s podcasts.