Reform Scotland suggests adults should be given £5,200 per year – £100 per week – under UBI scheme

The case for introducing a universal basic income (UBI) for all citizens has been strengthened “immeasurably” by the coronavirus pandemic, Nicola Sturgeon has insisted.

Scotland's First minister said she had “long been interested” in the concept which would see existing means-tested benefits replaced with a flat rate income, regardless of earnings, to all citizens.

But the SNP leader also said it would require the cooperation of the UK government, as she highlighted recent proposals from Reform Scotland suggesting adults should be given £5,200 per year – £100 per week

 It comes as the latest figures show 1.2 million people have made claims for universal credit in the past three weeks as government measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus brought swathes of the economy to a standstill.

 
The think tank said a basic income would ensure “financial certainty to the many people who have been thrown into a sudden and catastrophic loss of employment or reduced hours” as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.