Basic income is typically called &quot;Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen&quot; (unconditional basic income) in Germany, to indicate the difference between what we already have and what BI aims for.<p>The social security tier you seem to refer to (Arbeitslosengeld II, ALG II, also known as Hartz IV) has all kinds of conditions, eg. personal wealth above a certain value needs to be used first; significant others need to chip in first (and for people younger than 25 also their parents, and if you live in a flat share agreement, overzealous officials may try to exploit that fact); there&#x27;s a cooperation requirement on seeking jobs (and the officers in charge to deal with that can mess with you in plenty ways).<p>The &quot;father who has income on paper&quot; (and presumably a job) scenario is the smallest problem, by the way. Alimony is capped at a living income (which happens to be defined as &quot;enough to not receive social security benefits&quot;).<p>But it seems to me that the system is not very efficient to get people back into jobs, even though that&#x27;s its basic premise: Continuing to receive ALG II can be a full-time job in itself.<p>The &quot;promise&quot; of unconditional basic income is discussed somewhere else on the page: you get the money, now you&#x27;re free to live with that somehow or find a job on your own terms. It gets rid of the busywork, both for the recipient and the social security sector.