Kauhanen used the money ― and the time freed by no longer having to apply to multiple agencies for welfare benefits ― to take a telemarketing job. Pay was low, but topped up with the basic income, it dramatically changed her quality of life. It helped her finally sort out finances, after years of scouring grocery stores for the cheapest bread, milk and cheese. "I could go to a restaurant and have a normal dinner without thinking that, OK, I am going to have to eat noodles for the rest of the month," she said.

The end of the scheme was a shock, she said, for everyone who participated in the trial. "We all are in big trouble now to be honest, because what would happen to you if your income decreased by €600?"

She's still working at her job, but is already running up debt and desperately searching for better-paying work.

The end of Finland's scheme was also a blow to those who had hoped the trial would be expanded and extended. Politicians "wasted the opportunity of a lifetime to conduct the kind of trial that Finnish social policy experts had done preliminary research for for decades," said Antti Jauhiainen, a director of the think tank Parecon Finland.

He said the government was never really behind the experiment, because it was "simultaneously pushing for cutting the existing benefits and adding surveillance and control of the unemployed." The Finnish government has now introduced an "activation model," which requires unemployed people to complete a minimum of training or work to receive full benefits.

The announcement that Finland had no plans for more UBI schemes followed the cancellation of another UBI trial in Ontario. That test, launched in April 2017, involved 4,000 people on low incomes who received up to $13,000 a year for individuals, and up to $18,000 for couples, although payments were reduced by 50 cents for every dollar they earned.

The program was axed in 2018, following the election of right-wing politician Doug Ford. The government cited the "extraordinary cost for Ontario taxpayers." All payments will cease by March.

But there are experiments that are still going. A program in Kenya, for example, run by the charity GiveDirectly, has been giving out unconditional money since 2016 to more than 21,000 people in villages across the country in a trial set to last 12 years. Initial results show a boost to the well being of participants.

And there are others on the horizon. In the U.S., a trial is about to kick off in Stockton, Calif., that will give $500 a month to 100 low-income families. And in Oakland, the tech incubator Y Combinator intends to start a UBI trial this year that would hand $1,000 a month with no strings attached to 1,000 people across two U.S. states for three years. In India, the main opposition party is running on a pledge to introduce a guaranteed minimum income for the country's poor.