A radical hope

Dr Robyn Knight offers a focus on the Minimum Income Guarantee and explains how churches can help.

We need to do more to prevent poverty and injustice in Scotland – How can the Minimum Income Guarantee help?

We can all see that poverty is impacting the lives of many in Scotland and that churches are responding. Congregations across the country are running foodbanks, hosting practical support workshops, and making a difference in a myriad of creative and compassionate ways. Community work like this has been inspired by what God tells us in the Book of Deuteronomy: ‘I command you to be open handed…. there need be no poor people among you’. This is a vision of what could be, a society not just where people have enough, but everyone has the opportunity to flourish.

In September 2023 over one million people were living in poverty in Scotland, with nearly half of those living in very deep poverty. Despite the Scottish Child Payment, which helps many families, 24 per cent of children in Scotland are currently experiencing poverty, and the vast majority of those children – 70 per cent – live in a household where someone is in work. Too often, earning a salary is not the path out of poverty that we might expect. So why is this?

The reality is, for many, their wages alone are simply not enough to keep with the ever-growing cost of living. Just over 10 per cent of workers in Scotland are paid below the Living Wage, and 72 per cent of these are women. The relationships between the three main factors that influence poverty: earnings from employment, the cost of essentials such as housing and childcare, and income from social security, means that often people find themselves trapped in a disempowering cycle of poverty through no fault of their own.

It is estimated that 49 per cent of Scotland’s 800,000 unpaid carers have reduced their paid working hours or stopped completely, leading to an average income drop of £1,000 per month. As for people relying on social security payments, currently five out of six households receiving Universal Credit across the UK report they are going without essentials.

We can see clearly that so many of us don’t have enough. But even now, we can, and should, have hope. Emma Jackson, Convenor of the Faith Action Programme’s Public Life and Social Justice, reminds us that “the overarching story of the bible, the fullness of the gospel and the very nature of God is flourishing and wholeness for all of us.

“ We can see clearly that so many of us don’t have enough. But even now, we can, and should, have hope.

“Having enough is the foundation to build life from - it should be unconditional. Just like the radical, unconditional grace and love of Jesus poured out to us all through his death on the cross.”

With this radical hope comes a call to action

We need national action that ensures fair work and living wages, providing affordable essential services, and ensuring fit for purpose social security for those who need it.

One solution is the Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG), which was adopted as policy by the 2024 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. It’s an approach that has at heart the concept that everyone should have enough to live on, no judgement, no conditionality.

A MIG approach would mean reforms to the world of work, policies and investment to ensure fair work, reduced costs for essential services and flexible, and fit for purpose benefit payments, to ensure that everyone has enough to live on. For most, reforms to work will ensure that paid work or other income will be sufficient income to meet the Minimum Income Guarantee – a minimum income floor than no one would be able to fall below, that is ours by right. For others, an additional MIG payment would be targeted and tailored to meet different needs.

We may say yes, this is all very good, but is it achievable?

Aside from the cost of human suffering, and erosion of people’s life chances, the economic costs of poverty are high. The Poverty and Inequality Commission reports that currently £2.3 billion of Scottish health boards’ budget is directed to responding to the impacts of poverty. As the Poverty and Inequality Commission also tell us, the lost income due to historic child poverty in Scotland is, at a conservative estimate, between £1.6 and £2.4 billion per year.

If, nationally, we commit to ensuring everyone has a reasonable minimum income, we have a chance to prevent some of the harm created by poverty, so that less tax payers’ money will be spent on addressing the impacts of poverty.

Although, benefits and social security payments remain reserved to Westminster, there are a number of other areas where progress on a Minimum Income Guarantee in Scotland does not need to wait. This could include a policy move that would see a commitment to pay the real living wage, and the offer of minimum ‘living hours’ for all Scottish Government public sector contractor employees and public authorities.

What are the next steps for the Minimum Income Guarantee?

The Minimum Income Guarantee is a new idea, and while the basic concept is clear there are many details still to work out. A Scottish Parliament Cross-party Working Group will be producing a road map for implementation in the autumn. The Church of Scotland is joining with other denominations and the Poverty Alliance at a conference on October 12 to explore how we as churches can contribute to the debate and act.

For more details about the conference email rknight@churchofscotland.org.uk.

What can you and your congregation do?

Raise Awareness

The most important thing your congregation can do is talk about the Minimum Income Guarantee to others. Information materials about the MIG will be available from the Church in the autumn, and in the meantime the Poverty Alliance website has a lot of useful information.

Be Inspired

Imagine what life would look like in your congregation and your towns and villages if everyone had enough to thrive and flourish. Think about what might change, what could your congregation do that it isn’t able to do right now?

Speak to your MP/MSPs

Get in touch with your MP, or MSPs, using the contact details on the UK and Scottish Parliament’s website. Share with them your vision for your community, where everyone has enough to live. Ask them to commit to supporting policies that will help make the MIG a reality, like reforms to work and welfare, in Parliament. The Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office can help with this, or use the Meet your MP resources on our website.

Pray 

Pray for the realisation of God’s intention for all to be free from poverty. Pray for justice, and a society where people can flourish with dignity through fair work and fair pay, and a social security net that is responsive to individuals’ needs and circumstances. ¤

Dr Robyn Knight is a Research Officer with the Faith Action Programme of the Church of Scotland.