US city gives each resident $500 dollars to fight poverty

- Residents of Stockton city in California are getting $500 each every month to help them fight poverty

- In addition to the monthly pay, the residents would also get an extra 18-month pay under UBI

- Among collaborators of the scheme is the Economic Security Project which has contributed $1 million to the alleviation programme

Residents of Stockton, California, are reported to have been going through a lot as many are affected by the recent widespread foreclosures to bankruptcy.

Help, however, is here for many of the citizens as one hundred Stockton residents started getting $500 monthly payment on Friday, February 15, CNN reports.

The payment is part of the goal of the Universal Basic Income (UBI) programme to fight poverty as beneficiaries would also receive extra money for 18 months aside the $500 monthly pay.

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The Stockton project is made possible through the collaboration between Mayor Michael Tubbs and the Economic Security Project (ESP) with a $1 million contribution.

"Too many families and Americans are trying to piece together multiple jobs and incomes and aren't able to make ends meet," Dr Stacia Martin-West said.

Chris Hughes, a facebook co-founder, said the idea of the poverty-tackling programme was to provide a financial base that people could build on.

He said: "The idea is to provide a foundation, a floor on which people can build. As a moral issue, a matter of economic justice, we should create a floor in the US. The vast majority of people participating are having a hard time making ends meet. The point is to help the people who need it most."

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that Laolu Akande, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, office of the vice president, says any attack on the TraderMoni scheme is an attack on hardworking petty traders and Nigerians in general.

A group, Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, recently called for the suspension of the programme, one of the microcredit schemes of President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s Social Investment Programmes (SIPs).

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Source: Legit.ng