Universal basic income, not child benefit, is key to alleviating poverty

A universal basic income is ‘definitely a Beveridgean concept’, writes Lynda Mountford.Polly Toynbee (Beveridge was cradle-to-grave: who could sell that these days?, 26 February) recommends focusing funds on child benefit as “the best investment for future national wellbeing”.What child benefit did was to convert a regressive system of child tax allowances – which gave more to rich families than to poor ones – into cash payments of the same amount per child to