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

Conclusion

We can draw a line under poverty, inequality and financial insecurity by putting in place a level of income beneath which no one is allowed to fall. As simple and transformational as this idea is, this report shows that its delivery would be complex. However, it shows that it would be worth it.

This report sets out the long-term ambition of a full Minimum Income Guarantee and the steps needed to make this a reality. In doing so we have aimed to speak to the future, and our hopes that things can be far better than they are now. Alongside that, we have aimed to speak to the here and now, ensuring that we set out the first steps in the near-term that can deliver impact. This begins the journey to a very different, and much improved, social contract in Scotland.

We have found that a Minimum Income Guarantee will need action across paid work; costs and services; and social security. While the mix of interventions across these three dimensions could change, without action across all three a Minimum Income Guarantee would not reach its full potential.

As we make progress towards a full Minimum Income Guarantee, there are impactful steps we can take through existing powers and greater flexibility in cooperation with the UK Government, that build on progress in Scotland since devolution. These would take us beyond a safe and secure transition of social security and other devolved powers, and into new and radical thinking that can build a distinct Scotland-approach to the social contract we build.

We have tested the idea, in multiple ways, including through our Experts by Experience Panel and public opinion, and found it to work.

A Minimum Income Guarantee is a big idea, but we hope this report has broken this big idea down into manageable steps that do not need to wait. The first steps can begin almost immediately with the right political will and public support.

We are proud to publish this report of the Minimum Income Guarantee Expert Group. We look forward to working with all five political parties that have been a part of this process, to deliver the progress we need to see, both in the near-term and over the years to come.