Yes, you did read that:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43866700

Though there was an attempt to walkback or reframe that article:

http://www.kela.fi/web/en/-/contrary-to-reports-the-basic-in...

> Finland's two-year pilot scheme started in January 2017.. But it will not be extended after this year

Sounds slightly different than the parent's phrasing -- the trial was not "walked back", they just decided not to invest more money in it.

Given that the research hasn't been completed, it seems perfectly reasonable for the government to decline to extend the trial; I'd think it sensible to wait until they have analyzed the results before making any decisions (unless they have already seen some early data).

> "The employment effects across the whole experiment will be available by the end of 2019 or at the beginning of 2020."

One of the big differences between the experiments that Finland did and actual UBI is that UBI is supposed to replace all kinds of monetary welfare. It sounds like the experiments in Finland failed because of the cost, but it's really hard to try that small scale, because many of the cost benefits of full scale UBI come from being able to shut down all of the overhead of various welfare programs.

The potential savings from shutting down welfare programmes would be fairly easy to calculate, though.

No, they just haven't expanded it. I also think that the finish experiment has two main problems: they only give money to the unemployed, and they are only interested in measuring whether this leads to more employment. Seems almost cynical that they are not interested in other possible outcomes, such as benefits for unpaid work, family or health.

No, it's continuing until its planned end date.

http://www.kela.fi/web/en/-/contrary-to-reports-the-basic-in...