# Unconditional cash transfers

**Intervention ID:** `int_cash`  
**Evidence strength:** strong  
**Causes:** `cause_cash_transfers`

## Mechanism

Transfer cash to people in poverty.

## Organizations in this catalog

- `org_givedirectly`

## Citations (public evaluator pages)

- https://www.happierlivesinstitute.org/charities/

## Evidence notes

HLI uses GiveDirectly cash as WELLBY benchmark (~7.55 WELLBYs/$1000 cited on HLI charities page comparison table context).

## Key uncertainties

- Cash is a less tailored intervention than therapy/nutrition for specific populations (HLI charities FAQ).
- Benchmark figures depend on HLI’s cash CEA assumptions and overhead treatment (HLI charities methodology FAQ).

## Fungibility notes

Unconditional cash transfers are typically additional to recipients; HLI treats cash as scalable default benchmark rather than modeling displacement.

## Cost-effectiveness notes (do not treat as verified without citation_urls)

HLI benchmark ~7.55 WELLBYs/$1000 for GiveDirectly.

Agents must look up `data/claims_index.json` and cite `citation_urls` before stating numbers.

## Provenance

See `docs/evaluation-provenance.md` and `data/graph/evaluations_graph.json`.

_last_reviewed: 2026-10-01_