What is the Basic Income for the Arts(BIA)?

The new BasicIncome for the Arts (BIA) pilot scheme aims to support the arts andcreative practice by giving a payment of 325 a week to artists and creativearts workers.

The main objective of the scheme is to address the financial instabilityfaced by many working in the arts.

The pilot scheme closed for applications on 12 May 2022.2,000 eligible artists and creative arts workers were selected at random andinvited to take part in the pilot scheme.

The anonymised randomised selection of participants was held on 29 August2022. Successful applicants were notifiedon 8 September 2022.

The pilot runs over 3 years, from 2022 to 2025.

You should check the BIAguidelines for the most up to date information.

Approximately 2,000 eligible applicants were selected to participate in thepilot scheme.

Once you meet the eligibility criteria, you were included in an anonymisedrandom sampling process. A randomiser software was used to select participantsat random. The sample was checked to ensure adequate representation.

The anonymised randomised selection of participants was held on 29 August2022. You should have received notification of the outcomeof your application on 8 September 2022.

Check your email and spam folder for this correspondence from the Departmentof Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. If you cannot find anemail you should email basicincomeforthearts@tcagsm.gov.ie.

You can appeal if you think the process for reviewing your application wasnot adhered to.

You must have a decision email from the Basic Income for the Arts PilotScheme team to make an appeal and you must appeal within 5 working days of thedate on the decision email.

You will be paid a BIA grant of 325 a week. Payments will be mademonthly.

The pilot will run over 3 years, from 2022 to 2025. As this is a researchpilot there is no guarantee that funding will continue after the pilot.

Start date of your payments will depend on how quickly bank details andevidence of tax clearance are returned to the Department of Tourism, Culture,Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

You will also have to complete your baseline survey before receivingpayment. The baseline survey collects data relating to your situation beforethe BIA payment starts.

The baseline survey will be made available on the online portal in thecoming weeks, and you will be notified by email when this happens.

The first payments are expected to be issued during the second half ofOctober.

The weekly payment will be back-dated to 29 August 2022, which was the dateof the anonymised randomised selection.

The payment will be taxable, but the amount of tax paid will depend on yourindividual circumstances.

You will need to register with Revenue as self-employed and pay Schedule Dincome tax, where appropriate, on the BIA payment. Income from the pilot willbe liable for Class S PRSI.

You are entitled to earn additional income, which would also be reckonablefor the purposes of income tax.

Income from the scheme will be treated as income from self-employment forthe purpose of various means tests.

If you are in receipt of a social welfare payment and receive payments fromthe pilot scheme, you should advise the Department of Social Protection (DSP)of this change in your circumstances.

Read more about how the BIAinteracts with DSP payments.

The pilot scheme will evaluate the impact of a basic income on artists andcreative arts workers. The pilot programme will collect and analyse data fromBIA recipients and a control group throughout the pilot.

If you were selected to participate on BIA, you will:

You can read more about the typeof data you will need to collect and share if you are selected toparticipate in the BIA pilot.

A number of eligible applicants who are not selected to receive the paymentwere asked to participate in a control group. Control group participants willrespond to the same survey and data requests as those in receipt of thepayment.

If you participate in the control group, you are paid two weeks basic incomefor each of the 3 years of the pilot scheme. This means you will get 6 weeks ofthe BIA payment to compensate you for the time required to engage in the datacollection process.

Read more here:

Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) - Citizens Information