On November 14th 2017, Antoinette Hertsenberg (from the Dutch television program Radar) handed over a petition to the Dutch Parliament (signed by 113.344 people), asking for an experiment with a basic income for people over 55 years old who are unemployed.

The petition was started after Radar called attention to the fact that only 3% of the unemployed 55+ have a chance to find a paid job in the Netherlands, 6 months ago.

The handing over of the petition was a large event; many members of Parliament were present, representing almost all political parties. In reaction to the petition, the Socialist Party (SP) asked for a debate in Parliament on the topic, in contrast to what happened in the preceding year, in which a debate about another petition on basic income was refused.

A lot of media attention was given to the petition, reigniting discussion on basic income in the Netherlands.

More info:

Pedro Alves, “Netherlands: Basic Income petition in the Netherlands for people over 55 years old was signed more than 50000 times“, Basic Income News, July 6th 2017