Back in March 2021 the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Scotland published a report entitled “Securing a Living Income in Scotland: Towards a Minimum Income Guarantee” (MIG).
The institute proposed that Scotland could adopt an unconditional and more generous version of the UK’s current main income-tested benefit, Universal Credit (UC), in order to address high levels of poverty and insecurity.
In this analysis of the proposal, Annie Miller concludes that “the IPPR Scotland proposal inherits many of the current problems already identified with respect to the Universal Credit system. It includes two welcome modifications: Minimum Income Guarantees are both unconditional, and far more generous, versions of Universal Credit. However, these lead to some adverse unintended consequences.”
In her view, “MIGs could never be a forerunner of, nor even a stepping stone towards, a Basic Income. They are not only administratively different, but represent two very different philosophies”.
The full report can be found here.