THE world’s most robust universal basic income (UBI) experiment has found the scheme boosts recipients’ mental and financial well-being – and has a positive influence on employment.

Finland held a two-year study into UBI between 2017 and 2018. The research saw the Government give 2000 unemployed people, aged from 25-58, unconditional cash payments each month.

The 560 euro payments were not reduced if the recipient got a job or had their pay increased.

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This week Minna Ylikännö, of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, revealed the findings of the nationwide study.

The study compared employment and wellbeing of those who received UBI against a controlled group of 173,000 people who received unemployment benefit. It found between November 2017 and October 2018 UBI recipients worked an average of 78 days – six days more than those receiving unemployment benefits.

The research also found a larger increase in employment in families in children, as well as among those whose first language was not Finnish or Swedish. Further analysis was required to determine why this was the case.

A survey of those receiving UBI instead of traditional unemployment benefits found they reported better financial wellbeing, improved mental health and cognitive functioning, as well as higher level of confidence in their futures.

The concept of UBI has been much discussed during the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen unemployment increase around the world and has significantly boosted the likelihood of a recession.

In Scotland Nicola Sturgeon has said she is hoping for “constructive” talks with the UK Government about the policy, adding the argument for UBI has become stronger than ever amid the crisis.

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Speaking in Finland, Ylikanno UBI “would bring people security in very insecure situations when they don’t know whether they’re going to have an income”.

The study also found that UBI does not seem to provide a disincentive for people to work.

However Ylikanno stressed the effect of UBI could have been complicated by Finland’s “activation model”, introduced at the beginning of 2018, which made the conditions for accessing unemployment benefits stricter.

He added: “We can only say that the employment effect that we observed was as a joint result of the experiment and activation model.”

Preliminary findings, released last year, had found no difference in number of days worked between those receiving UBI and those receiving traditional unemployment benefits.