No : Potatoes will cost the same for everyone (even the rich). So the cost of purchasable goods does not decrease (which would happen, if some people got free potatoes, for instance). Agreed, there would be more money in the economy, so there would be a step-wise inflation, but the pain would be shared out (mainly according to ability to pay).
The benefit of a basic income is that any paid work would simply add to your take-home cash. At the moment, means-tested benefits can cause people entering into the workforce to have benefits removed - so that their implicit marginal tax rate can exceed 100% (i.e. they are worse off working). Even if this perverse situation isn't directly manifested, the very poor suffer some of the highest implicit tax rates
due to benefits being removed. Which is a crazy situation.
The benefit of a basic income is that any paid work would simply add to your take-home cash. At the moment, means-tested benefits can cause people entering into the workforce to have benefits removed - so that their implicit marginal tax rate can exceed 100% (i.e. they are worse off working). Even if this perverse situation isn't directly manifested, the very poor suffer some of the highest implicit tax rates due to benefits being removed. Which is a crazy situation.