Cook County in Illinois establishes permanent guaranteed income program

The second-largest county in the United States has launched a permanent guaranteed basic income program following the success of an earlier pilot version.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners last week unanimously approved $7.5 million for a permanent guaranteed basic income program. Chicago, the largest city in the Midwest and third largest in the country, is the county seat of Cook County.

Cook County made headlines when it created this Guaranteed Basic Income Program after many local governments across the country rolled out pilot versions.

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Guaranteed basic income programs have become a trend in the United States in recent years, with more than 1,000 100 pilots have started since 2018. Mayors for Guaranteed Income grew into a coalition of 150 mayors pushing pilot programs, offering low-income participants up to $1,000 per month with no strings attached. The group has advanced pilot programs that have been adopted by communities across the country.

The Cook County program launched in 2022 with the help of the federal COVID-19 relief funds.

The Cook County Promise Guaranteed Income Pilot, once the largest publicly funded program in the country that received $42 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, provided $500 monthly payments to 3,250 households for two years with no strings attached.

Sarah Saheb, director of Economic Security Illinois, described Cook County’s guaranteed basic income pilot as a “historic success” and said that as the federal government “stepped back from its responsibility to working families, Cook County is leading the way to ensure people can afford essentials.”

The commissioners told Fox News Digital that the decision to permanently extend the program was based on evidence from a survey through the county’s pilot program.

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Results released by the Commission in April showed that three-quarters of participants reported feeling more financially secure and 94% of participants used the resources to deal with financial emergencies during difficult times. The majority also reported that the program improved their mental health and reduced their stress levels.

The Commission learned from the survey that participants used the funds primarily for basic needs such as food, rent, utilities and transportation.

This was announced by the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI), a think tank that tracks political decisions in the state Fox News Digital that “Cook County is making its guaranteed income pilot permanent, allocating millions to a failed strategy that has been proven to leave people with less work experience and lower earnings.”

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“This should be concerning to anyone who wants real, long-term progress for low-income residents. A recent pilot program in northern Illinois, including Cook County, resulted in lower labor force participation and individual income (before transfers),” said Josh Bandoch, IPI’s director of policy.

In response to IPI, the commission told Fox News Digital that “outcomes and impact depend heavily on program design: amount of cash, frequency/duration of payments, eligibility criteria (income-based, location-based, etc.), and local cost of living.”

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“Cook County is working closely with the University of Chicago’s Inclusive Economy Lab to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the Promise Pilot. We will then design our next program in a thoughtful manner that considers short- and long-term outcomes,” the commission said.