Framing a Minimum Income Guarantee

Background and objectives

Background

The Minimum Income Guarantee is a policy response which seeks to deliver financial security for all, to reduce inequalities and to tackle poverty. It is a guaranteed minimum level of income beneath which no individual living in Scotland would fall, ensuring an acceptable standard of living that promotes dignity and a decent quality of life^[2].

The Scottish Government committed to delivering a Minimum Income Guarantee in the longer term in its 2021-22 Programme for Government^[3]. A Steering Group has been established, which includes a cross-party Strategy Group and an Expert Group of external representatives from academia, think tanks and poverty and equality organisations, to consider issues of design and delivery of the Minimum Income Guarantee.

The Scottish Government, on behalf of the independent Expert Group, commissioned Progressive Partnership to conduct market research in order to test levels of support for a Minimum Income Guarantee and to support future communication and framing around it. A Research Advisory Group (RAG) was also set up, consisting of representatives from the Expert Group (The Poverty Alliance and IPPR Scotland) and Scottish Government officials.

Research aims

The overall aim of the research was to provide robust and timely advice on how a Minimum Income Guarantee should be framed. It aimed to identify how this policy can be communicated effectively to ensure public awareness and understanding, with a focus on testing preferences for framing. While it was recognised that issues on the content and operation of a Minimum Income Guarantee were likely to be raised during the research, the design of the policy was not within the scope of this project.

The research was designed to follow a staged approach, as follows:

• Project inception: including a project inception meeting, an evidence review and engagement with members of the Expert Group to provide background understanding and inform the development of the framing options to be tested in the primary research
• Qualitative research: a series of in-depth interviews with members of the general public to explore the concepts identified during the inception stage and gain feedback on options for framing a Minimum Income Guarantee
• Quantitative research: a population survey to test the most promising Minimum Income Guarantee framing options with the general public via a nationally representative online survey.

This report

This report draws together findings from all stages of the project. It outlines the initial development of frames for testing, followed by findings from the qualitative interviews. The quantitative results are then presented, following an explanation of some adjustments that were made to the frames for testing based on the qualitative findings. The conclusions and recommendations take into account findings from both stages of primary research.