In this, the 80th anniversary of the Beveridge Report, Basic Income Conversation and Compass publish new research modelling a basic income that could reverse the poverty and inequality rises of the last 45 years.

This fiscally neutral scheme involves no additional calls on the public finances and no net increase in taxation: the cost of the extra payments would be exactly offset by the extra revenue from internal changes in tax rates and National Insurance Contributions (NICs).  

The scheme has the capacity to cut child poverty to an historic low, below the low point achieved in the late 1970s. This scheme would also have a much greater pro-equality impact than the anti-poverty measures introduced by New Labour.

Tackling Poverty: the power of universal basic income examines the distributive impacts of three UBI schemes which raise the income floor to different heights. These provide a potential pathway to attainment of the Minimum Income Standard (MIS). 

This research represents the most substantive attempt yet to assess the impact of a UBI scheme, and the greater income security it provides.

Media coverage of the report here:

• Inflation and the economics of belonging – Martin Sandbu in The Financial Times 
• A basic income ‘could cut poverty to its lowest point in decades’ – Liam Geraghty in The Big Issue
• An impactful and affordable universal basic income scheme is within reach – Stewart Lansley in LabourList
• A small revenue-neutral UBI could cut poverty to lowest in 60 years at no net cost, according to new research – Basic Income Today

For further media enquiries, please contact Gabriel Everington: gabriel@compassonline.org.uk.