First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the case for a universal basic income (UBI) has been “strengthened immeasurably” by coronavirus.

On Twitter, Ms Sturgeon said she has “long been interested” in the concept of UBI, which sees governments provide citizens with a basic rate of income, regardless of financial earnings.

Her comments came after Reform Scotland published proposals for a UBI scheme which would see adults given £5,200 per year, and those under the age of 16 provided with £2,600.

According to the think tank, the Basic Income Guarantee would cost the Scottish Government £20.4 billion a year.

Reform Scotland suggested measures to raise £18.34bn by scrapping the personal tax allowance along with some benefits, and increasing all rates of income tax by 8 per cent.

The Scottish Government does not have the power to implement such a scheme, but Ms Sturgeon said she was hoping for a “serious discussion” with Westminster.

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She said: “This is an interesting and timely read from @reformscotland – I’ve long been interested in concept of UBI but current situation strengthens case immeasurably.

“It would require UK gov co-operation – given current powers of @ScotParl – but hopefully we can have serious discussion.”

At the First Minister’s daily briefing on the coronavirus outbreak, she said there had been no formal approach from the Scottish Government to Westminster to lobby for the powers needed to begin such a project.

However, Ms Sturgeon highlighted UBI pilots taking place in local council areas in Scotland.

She added: “I hope it’s a debate that we will be able to advance, in the fullness of time, across the UK, because people are being hit in a financial sense by this, and simply tinkering with the status quo may not be enough to get us to a place of recovery as quickly as we want to do.”

Since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, the UK Government has offered a furlough programme which has seen employees put on leave by companies on 80 per cent of their salary.