Basic income plan will give everyone a dignified healthy and secure life
‘Revolutionary’ proposal aims to ‘transform lives’ of Scots
SCOTLAND has taken its first steps towards creating a basic income level for all citizens in a bid to tackle inequality.
The bold proposal – called the minimum income guarantee – was a key SNP manifesto pledge before May’s Holyrood election and the Scottish Government is examining how to make it a reality. Social justice secretary Shona Robison will host the first meeting of a new steering group tasked with driving forward the ambitious plan with the aim of reducing poverty.
The SNP minister has launched a consultation on how exactly the policy will work but admitted it “will not be easy”.
The Government hopes the guarantee would offer an assurance that all Scots would have enough money to live a dignified, healthy and financially secure life.
Writing in the Record, Robison stressed an income guarantee would not be a mechanism to keep wages low, with employers being expected to play a role in reducing poverty.
While there is no exact detail on how it could work, the guarantee is not expected to simply be an additional social security payment or a top-up of existing benefits.
Robison said: “We are committed to progressing the delivery of a minimum income guarantee, which could be revolutionary in our fight against poverty. It is a clear demonstration of our ambition and aspiration for Scotland.
“The policy is innovative, bold and radical.
“Eradicating child poverty and building a fairer, more equal country must be a national mission, not just for the government but our parliament and broader society.
“We recognise this is a crossgovernment responsibility and we are focused on working together to push forward poverty reduction in Scotland.
“Introducing a minimum income guarantee will not be easy and it will not happen overnight but there is a willingness to deliver on our ambition.”
The steering group will be co-chaired by Russell Gunson, director of the Institute for Public Policy Research in Scotland.
He backed the creation of a minimum income guarantee in a report published earlier this year.
Gunson said: “A minimum income guarantee could transform the lives of people across Scotland, setting an income floor in Scotland beneath which no one would fall.”