Minimum Income Guarantee: report - a roadmap to dignity for all

Foreword

A Minimum Income Guarantee is a simple yet transformational idea: there should be a minimum income level beneath which no one is allowed to fall. This should be delivered through a combination of fair work; reform to services and the cost of essentials; and investment in social security, ensuring nobody’s income drops below the level required to live with dignity.

The last few years have exposed the weaknesses at the heart of our safety net and our social contract, and across many of our systems. Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis with the years of austerity and stalled living standards, has demonstrated that we need a much stronger foundation. Over the last decade or two we have built a situation where risk has been redistributed to those least able to bear it. Far from a social security system, we have drifted into the creation of a social insecurity system, with gaping holes in the safety net; low-paid and insecure work the norm for too many; inaccessible services and high costs; and widening inequalities for some people and communities.

Addressing this will not be easy. The Scottish and UK Governments are facing challenging financial circumstances. Globally we are seeing a rise in political instability. As a country we will also need to manage significant change – from an ageing population, the just transition on climate change, and significant technological advances.

These combine to make big change more difficult but more necessary.

This report sets out a big idea – the Minimum Income Guarantee – and the steps that can take us from here to delivering it. It aims to show that things can be different, that we don’t have to accept the status quo. Far from a system based on insecurity, what if we could build a new approach for Scotland, with dignity and security for all as its aim? It would transform levels of poverty, inequality and insecurity in Scotland and help to build a much more resilient economy, with wellbeing at its core. This is what a Minimum Income Guarantee can do.

Our task has been to establish how we can deliver a Minimum Income Guarantee in Scotland, learning the lessons of the past, meeting the challenges we see in the present, and maximising the opportunities in the future.

By building a Minimum Income Guarantee we could unlock the potential of many more people, and in turn that of Scotland. With financial security people could live well, fully participate in society, retrain or return to paid work, and be rightfully recognised for the unpaid work that so many do to keep the country going. We could turn the tide on a wellbeing crisis – we know everyone needs a helping hand from time to time – offering a guarantee that we would all be there for each other when needed. We could rebuild trust and hope, and the sense that the next generation will be better off than the current one, and that hard work, whether paid or not, will be recognised and rewarded.

In undertaking our work over the last four years we have encountered two consistent questions – could a Minimum Income Guarantee work and can we, as a country, afford to deliver this sustainably?

So, could it work?

We are convinced it will. This report sets out a roadmap, with first steps designed to be implementable quickly – even in the challenging circumstances we find ourselves in now – and then built upon over time, learning as we go. Our proposed first steps include building a guarantee of support in Scotland, further progress on tackling destitution and child poverty, and a pilot of a Minimum Income Guarantee, recognising the extreme need faced by certain groups such as disabled people, unpaid carers and care leavers. Our aim is to evolve from the current system to create something fairer and far better. A distinct approach to our social contract in Scotland.

But can we afford it?

We are convinced that ending poverty, inequality and insecurity is right in principle and has significant benefits in practice. The status quo is holding us back. Too many people are unable to reach their full potential. This is bad for our wellbeing, has countless negative social impacts, and is bad for our economy. A Minimum Income Guarantee can help to build a stronger economy in Scotland through a universal guarantee of financial security for all. It would be preventative spending, reducing demands on public services to deal with the social and health problems caused by poverty and inequality. The question becomes less about whether we can afford to implement a Minimum Income Guarantee and more of a question of whether we can afford not to when we know poverty, inequality and insecurity costs us dearly in financial terms and in lost potential.

I mentioned that we have encountered two main questions in our work – ‘will it work?’ and ‘can we afford it?’ but they beg a third question – ‘will it happen?’.

That is up to you.

There will be a shared responsibility to bring this idea to fruition, from the businesses that provide fair work and opportunities to the campaigners that will drive change and hold decision-makers to account.

This report invites you to imagine a different future. Our Roadmap sets out a long-term vision and ambition for a Minimum Income Guarantee preceded by first steps that can happen now, through existing powers of the Scottish Government and in some instances greater flexibility or cooperation with the UK Government. We are aiming to speak to our hopes for the future, while also meeting the moment we face now, through tangible and deliverable steps that can begin right away. So it can be done. But will it be done?

We started this work six months after the last Scottish Parliamentary election. We publish with less than a year to go to the next. Five political parties have been engaged in this work. We need to build public support for a Minimum Income Guarantee that will make change irresistible to those with the power to make it a reality.

It is now over to you. If you want to see it happen, then read on and act. We will be there to support you. Become part of building a Minimum Income Guarantee in Scotland with a new fairer deal at its heart – security for all, opportunities for all, dignity for all.

Acknowledgements

We are proud of this report. And the ‘we’ I refer to are many and varied.

I would like to thank the countless people and organisations who have given up their time and offered support in becoming part of the movement for a Minimum Income Guarantee. In particular, the Poverty and Inequality Commission, Scottish Trade Union Congress, and the Work Foundation who have all participated in the Expert Group’s work. In addition, we are also grateful for the expertise of a range of academics that have supported throughout, notably Morgan Currie and Victoria Gorton from Edinburgh University who kindly produced a report^[1] on data sharing to enhance our understanding of automation and its potential for a Minimum Income Guarantee.

Thanks to the people with lived experience of poverty, inequality and financial insecurity that we have met, spoken with and sought advice from over the course of this work – including our Experts by Experience Panel. I am proud that establishing this Panel was our first decision as an Expert Group. Your voice has been crucial and a massive thank you for that. Thank you to Involve for bringing this together.

Thanks to the Strategy Group that has been part of this process throughout, who represented the five political parties who were in Parliament as we started this work.

A big thank you to the officials that have formed the secretariat for this work, both past and present, it would have been impossible without your dedicated, professional (and patient!) help and support.

And thank you to the Expert Group members, both past and present. This has undoubtedly been ambitious and hard work, at a time when our day jobs have been even more pressured and busy than usual. Thank you for supporting me in my role and for your contributions, multiple and varied, to making this work happen.

Lastly, and most of all, thank you to you, the reader. It sometimes feels like we, as people who want to make things better, have developed a mistrust of big ideas. At the same time our ability to remain optimistic for the future has been challenged countless times recently. But if we do not think that big change is possible then who else will? I hope that as you read on, and then think about how you can act, you can see the potential for this big idea. We can make the future better than the past. Let us try together to make it happen.

Russell Gunson

Chair of the Minimum Income Guarantee Expert Group

Expert Group members

The Expert Group presents this report which sets out a roadmap to delivering a Minimum Income Guarantee longer-term and aims to stimulate and inform vital public debate. Members of the Expert Group agree with the broad arguments made in this report, although they may not agree with every word or detail.

Russell Gunson (Chair), The Robertson Trust

Andy White, Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership

Anna Ritchie Allan, Close the Gap

Carmen Martinez, Scottish Women’s Budget Group

Catherine Murphy, Engender

Chris Birt, Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Emma Jackson, Citizens Advice Scotland

Fiona Collie, Carers Scotland

Gerry McCartney, University of Glasgow

John Dickie, Child Poverty Action Group

Kimberley Wong and Sholen Macpherson, Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights

Mubin Haq, Financial Fairness Trust

Peter Kelly, The Poverty Alliance

Satwat Rehman, One Parent Families Scotland

Stephen Boyd, Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland

Tressa Burke, Glasgow Disability Alliance