Basic income for the arts : analysis of the 2025 public consultation

The Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) is a pilot scheme that provides a weekly income of €325 to approximately 2,000 randomly selected artists and creative arts workers to address financial instability and encourage their creative practice. The pilot started in October 2022 and ended in February 2026. This online Public Consultation opened on 12 August and closed on 5 September 2025. Its purpose was to provide the general public, artists, and those working in the arts and culture sector with a broad platform to express their views on the future of the scheme. On average, 96.7% of members of the public thought that the BIA ought to be made permanent. Yet the regression analysis highlighted that, holding everything else (the key aspects of the pilot) equal/constant, members of the public and Arts Organisation Representatives are much less likely to support making the pilot permanent compared to artists (whether current recipients or not).