Minimum Income Guarantee Expert Group work and potential trial in Scotland: intersectional analysis

Opportunities for further intersectional analysis within the existing timeframe

Building an intersectionality framework for recommendation testing

As mentioned, the Expert Group would have benefitted from embedding equalities and intersectionality into the methodology of the group’s work. This would have included a clear definition being written into the remit of the group, skills-building for all group members, adequate time and prioritisation in the group’s meetings, and the use of existing intersectional and disaggregated data. Whilst all of the above may not have been fully included in the work to date, there is a further opportunity for the Expert Group to embed intersectional analysis into the recommendations of the final report.

The Expert Group should develop a framework or series of review questions which assess the current recommendations through an intersectional lens, focusing on (at least) the intersections listed in the section above on data. These review questions could include:

1. What are the intersectional consequences of this recommendation for the compounding inequalities we have identified?

2. Does the way the recommendation is written unintentionally defer to a default population group?

3. Does the generic nature of this recommendation create unintended consequences for these groups? Does it reinforce siloes or overlapping systemic inequalities?

4. What needs to be added to this recommendation which ensures it is responded to adequately by the Scottish Government for those who experience these intersecting and compounding inequalities?

Some examples of how this could be used in the final report:

Recommendation: The Scottish Government should carry out full modelling of what a Minimum Income Guarantee would look like if it was to be assessed individually ahead of any policy being implemented. This should include the indirect costs – both social and economic – of retaining household means-testing. The Scottish Government should also carry out full impact assessments of any part of the Minimum Income Guarantee policy that it implements to ensure that women and all priority groups are not driven deeper into poverty.

Applying an intersectional lens: Impact assessments are usually conducted through a review of a policy by protected characteristics. The Scottish Government should see this as an opportunity to showcase good practice and conduct impact assessments with a focus on compounding inequalities, using evidence to determine how a Minimum Income Guarantee would positively or negatively influence their lives.

Recommendation: The Scottish Government should gradually introduce a new offer that provides 1,300 hours per year (24 hours per week across the year) for 1- and 2-year-olds. This should prioritise low-income households.

Applying an intersectional lens: The current model of childcare provision in Scotland does not adequately meet the needs of a significant number of marginalised communities, particularly those who experience compounding inequalities - “minority ethnic” women, disabled women, single parents, those in low-income households, those living in rural areas, those with disabled children and the intersections/overlaps of these experiences. These are the communities that need to be prioritised in recommendations of this kind for them to be most effective. Sufficient childcare provision is not solely about allocation of hours, it also needs to be met with, comprehensive local availability, accessibility, responding to complex needs, and cultural competence in childcare provision must be responded to.

Recommendation: The Minimum Income Guarantee should be paid to individuals in the household as default. The allocation of payments should be initially based on the Scottish UC Split Payments allocation, but any lessons learned from this should be built in as it is implemented. The allocation of payments should ensure individuals have access to their own entitlements as far as possible and take into account equalities considerations.

NB: this recommendation was used in the online workshop and intersectional analysis developed with members of the Expert Group, lived experience experts and external expertise.

Applying an intersectional lens: Current data collection and methods of assessment do not adequately understand the complexity of how people’s families exist, particularly if they are families who experience intersecting inequalities. As a consequence, utilising methods already in existence within social security is likely to reinforce the same inequalities for the same groups when applied to a Minimum Income Guarantee; for example, methods of assessing households do not reflect a competent intersectional lens. As such, considerable intersectional and disaggregated data collection and analysis is needed in advance of Minimum Income Guarantee implementation and payment methods. A specific recommendation on this should be included in the “further steps” stage of Minimum Income Guarantee implementation by the Scottish Government.

Report writing vision document

The Expert Group developed a vision document to support the writing of the final report. This vision was discussed and edited as a group in a workshop in early November. This vision document provides a comprehensive overview of the purpose of the group and a minimum income guarantee. What is positive about this vision is the clarity with which it expresses the need for wider change alongside the introduction of a Minimum Income Guarantee. In particular, the explanation of a renewal of a social contract is critical to building a public narrative which supports wider system change and anti-poverty efforts.

This vision document includes reference to equality and inclusion however should include an explanation of systemic inequality, intersectionality, and reference those who experience multiple and compounding inequalities. Ideally, the population groups most impacted by poverty and therefore most benefitted by an effectively implemented Minimum Income Guarantee should be explicitly named: women, disabled people, LGBT people, single parents, unpaid carers, BME communities and the intersections within. As it currently stands, the vision assumes a generic experience of poverty, which is, of course, evidenced to not be an accurate depiction. There are specific communities who are disproportionately more likely to experience poverty and destitution. These communities are less likely to access services or find services appropriate to their needs despite, cumulatively, making up the majority of the population.

Parts of the vision document assume an individualistic experience of poverty and anti-poverty measures that focus on the individual’s life chances, e.g., the focus on talent or access to services. The vision document should state that poverty is a consequence of systemic inequality including gender inequality, racism, disability discrimination and the intersections in between. This must be expressed within any vision document attempting to tackle poverty to ensure that the solutions to poverty take a systems change approach.

Specifically, the section which provides priorities for a Minimum Income Guarantee should include the following:

A full Minimum Income Guarantee would see a social contract whereby:

• Anti-poverty policy design and implementation is fit for purpose; understanding that women, disabled people, single parents, unpaid carers, BME communities and those who experience compounding inequalities being members of more than one of these population groups are disproportionately more likely to experience poverty. As such policy design and delivery prioritises these groups and takes an effective equalities and intersectional approach. Policy making institutions must work with these communities and relevant experts to co-produce and hold to account, policy, strategy, and budgets.

Furthermore, the vision document would benefit from including more intersectional analysis in the roadmap description. For example, the recommendations on initial steps should be preceded by context setting on who these recommendations are most needed for and what analysis this requires (e.g., gendered analysis, anti-racist analysis, intersectional analysis). It could include the following:

• The Scottish Government should take significant steps to deliver on accepted recommendations from the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls, Disabled People’s Organisations, and The Equality and Human Rights Budget Advisory Group which support budget decision-making and anti-poverty measures delivering more effectively for those who are most marginalised and via relevant organisational and lived experience co-production.
• During all phases (initial, further, and long-term steps) of the Minimum Income Guarantee, the Scottish Government should take forward all recommendations through a competent equalities and intersectional lens. This requires the use of intersectional, disaggregated data and skilled application of intersectional analysis. It requires development and implementation of recommendations which prioritise the population groups who experience multiple and compounding inequalities and by doing so delivers a Minimum Income Guarantee that is fit for purpose for all.