UBI - No Panacea

Plans to give every Scot a basic income of £100 a week would risk making child poverty worse, according to the Institute for Public Policy and Research has warned.

The Institute said by increasing the median income, a so-called Citizen's Income would raise the relative poverty line, leaving more families with children below the line.

Assuming a UBI was set at just over £100 per week per adult and £50 per week per child, even in the best case scenario - measuring poverty in Scotland by comparison with incomes in England - only 60,000 children would be lifted out of poverty, the IPPR said.

A spokeswoman for the IPPR said poverty was increasing faster than a UBI would be able to take people out of poverty, and would get rid of means-tested benefits, by replacing money targeted at the poorest with universal payments. She claimed topping up the child element of Universal Credit by £150 per month could lift 100,000 children out of relative poverty in Scotland, at a much lower cost of £950m per year.

Russell Gunson, Director of IPPR Scotland, said: “The idea of a Universal Basic Income has gained attention in recent years in Scotland with supporters across the political spectrum. And it’s good to research the idea and test its feasibility. However, our modelling shows that far from being an anti-poverty measure, a UBI could increase relative child poverty in Scotland.

"There may be a number of good reasons to consider the introduction of a Universal Basic Income in Scotland but it seems reducing relative child poverty is not one of them. A UBI could cost an eye-watering amount of money, around £20bn per year in Scotland at these rates. Even just a small proportion of that could be used to make huge inroads into poverty rates in Scotland.”