Mitchell on unconditional cash transfers

Lindsay Mitchell blogs:

Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw of the Morgan Foundation (DomPost, Jan 1) argues that giving families cash with “no strings attached” is the best way of reducing child poverty. To support her argument she quotes fromThe Economist, “Unconditional Cash Transfers work better than almost anyone would have expected. They dent the stereotype of poor people as inherently feckless and ignorant”.

This is only part of the quote. The next sentence is, “But Conditional Cash Transfers are usually better still, especially when dealing with the root causes of poverty and, rather than just alleviating it, helping families escape it altogether.”

That immediately conflicts with the idea of “no strings attached.”

I have a way to resolve this issue.

Let the Morgan Foundation choose a suburb and the Morgan Foundation gives everyone in that suburb $500 a week. And then see after say three years what the impact has been.