Minimum Income Guarantee Expert Group: interim report

Introduction

A Fairer, Greener Scotland: Programme for Government 2021-22 set out the Scottish Government’s ambitions for that year and beyond which included a commitment to begin work on a Minimum Income Guarantee.^[2] A Steering Group was appointed to consider the design and delivery, it is made up of a cross-party Strategy Group and an Expert Group with representation from academia, trade union, poverty and equality organisations. The Expert Group has also commissioned an Experts by Experience panel to help to shape the work. This report is the interim report from the Expert Group.

To ensure full transparency in the development process, all papers and minutes from Steering Group and Expert Group meetings are published on the Scottish Government website: Minimum Income Guarantee Steering Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Minimum Income Guarantee Steering Group remit

To help achieve the aims of the Minimum Income Guarantee Steering Group, the remit of the Expert Group is to:

review the outputs of the initial phase of stakeholder engagement arising from the Scottish Government’s commitment to ‘invite all groups and organisations supportive of a Minimum Income Guarantee to start planning how this can be delivered’

prepare and take forward a work-plan covering the following matters:

• definition and scope of a Minimum Income Guarantee;
• work required to determine thresholds of a Minimum Income Guarantee;
• what could be achieved through existing powers, including (but not exclusively) social security powers;
• priorities for implementation and prospective timetable for delivery;
• what could be achieved in the longer term if more powers were devolved; and
• innovative approaches to further evidence-gathering and engagement, including public participation to ensure widespread awareness of and opportunity to contribute to the work.

The Expert Group’s work-plan will take into consideration practical implications around legislation and resources, including financial and delivery considerations. As noted below the work-plan will be agreed by the Strategy Group.

Additionally, the Strategy Group will:

• act as champions to promote awareness of, and support for, the work of the Steering Group;
• agree the Steering Group work-plan and review progress and outputs from it, including priorities for delivery and approach to devolution of further powers;
• attend key meetings of the Steering Group and, as necessary, meet separately from it to receive regular updates and review the work-plan and progress in delivery;
• from time to time take stock to ensure that the overall remit and membership of the Expert Group remains fit for purpose; and
• participate, as appropriate, in engagement activity taken forward under the work-plan.

It is vital that a Minimum Income Guarantee is co-designed alongside people with lived experience of financial insecurity. The Expert by Experience Panel will provide rich and diverse views that will be central to developing a Minimum Income Guarantee. They will meet several times throughout 2022/23 to deliberate on key questions posed by the Expert Group and provide feedback on the individual elements of a Minimum Income Guarantee so collective decisions can be made.

The Expert Group agreed to produce this interim report to outline the work to date towards defining a Minimum Income Guarantee, the context in which the policy is being developed, provide a high-level overview of direction and early thinking towards potential actions and priorities, and set out the remaining questions and work needed to make progress towards a full report in 2024.

Our goal is to make robust, evidence-based recommendations for the implementation of a Minimum Income Guarantee in Scotland. In our full report, this will include long-term ambitions around a Minimum Income Guarantee alongside shorter-term steps towards that ambition which the Scottish Government can adopt with a sense of urgency. In this interim report we set out our thinking so far, the direction of travel for year two, and actions that can prepare the way for fast progress following our full report.