Minimum Income Guarantee: Experts by Experience Panel report - easy read

Easy Read: Minimum Income Guarantee Experts by Experience Panel Report

A Minimum Income Guarantee is a plan to make sure everyone has enough money to live.

It will be met by fair paid work, strong public services and benefits.

The Scottish Government has the help of experts to design a Minimum Income Guarantee for Scotland.

Those experts are called the Expert Group.

The Expert Group asked a charity called Involve to bring people together to help.

Those people are called the Experts by Experience Panel.

The Panel included over 30 people from different backgrounds, everyone had experience of money problems.

The Panel met 9 times between October 2022 and April 2024 to help design the Minimum Income Guarantee.

The Panel thought about how a Minimum Income Guarantee could stop poverty, improve work and make people feel better.

The Panel shared their ideas with the Expert Group.

There were different opinions about what should be in a Minimum Income Guarantee.

The Panel also spoke about what might make it hard to do in Scotland:

• Is it possible for the Scottish Government to deliver a Minimum Income Guarantee?

• do politicians and the people of Scotland want a Minimum Income Guarantee?

• how much it will cost to start a Minimum Income Guarantee?

The Panel talked about what a good life should be like.

They agreed that the Minimum Income Guarantee should be based on real life costs and needs.

The Panel also talked about how important paid and unpaid work is and how to help people do well.

The Panel made a guide to show what the Minimum Income Guarantee should look like:

1. it should be delivered with fairness for everyone, without punishing anyone. It should help make things fair for all and make sure people have enough money to live well.

2. it should be delivered in a way that everyone can get the help they need easily and without feeling worried.

3. it should help and support everyone who needs it, in the way that they need it. This means both with money and in other ways.

4. it should be checked all the time to make sure that it still works for people and for the country.

5. it should be part of a bigger system that looks at what each person needs and helps them meet those needs in the best way for them.

6. it should be open for everyone to see if it is working well, and to see how much it costs.

7. it should support people to have enough money, to have good health and happiness, and to take a full part in life.

8. it should make sure that paid work is fair and should value people doing unpaid work as well.

The Expert Group will tell the Scottish Government what steps can be made towards a Minimum Income Guarantee.

The Expert Group should use the guide from the Panel when they report to the Scottish Government.

Related Publications

The full Minimum Income Guarantee Experts by Experience Panel report is available at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836015406.

The executive summary is available at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836015420.