MENTAL health and wellbeing, child welfare and material security have all improved in a trial of a minimum “basic” income, but a report on the experiment yesterday revealed that financial insecurities remain for recipients.

The Young Foundation, which carried out the two-year study, said it cast a shadow on the potential of a temporary minimum income – similar to a universal basic or citizen income – as a means of tackling economic and social inequality and reducing poverty.

The report said there was no strong evidence that citizen income improved routes to employability, and there were implications for the design and implementation of future experiments and policies.

The findings of the B-MINCOME (Barcelona minimum income) trial were revealed as planning continues for pilot schemes in Scotland, Leeds and Sheffield.

Barcelona City Council started the initiative to help tackle urban poverty and social exclusion in around 200 households in some of its poorest districts.

Each received an average of €500 (£421) per month, with some participants offered access to social programmes to support employability, social enterprise and community participation.

In Scotland, MSPs have set up a steering group to assess the feasibility of introducing pilots for a Citizens Basic Income (CBI). It has suggested setting it at two levels, with a lower rate more closely aligned to the current level of benefit payments.

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It proposed £213.59 a week for people aged 16 years to pension age and £195.90 a week for those above pension age.

The report suggested that some B-MINCOME participants reported feeling that they were in a better position to get a job, with the extra income giving them more time, resources and “mental bandwidth” for job searching and training or education.

There was also a boost to financial and material wellbeing for most, but some still had difficult choices to make on essential outgoings.

Elements of the design and implementation of the trial had a limited impact and raised ethical questions, with researchers asking how it could be done ethically and responsibly.

Helen Goulden, CEO of The Young Foundation, said: “Though the results of the B-MINCOME trial do not offer a ringing endorsement of the idea of a guaranteed minimum income helping to increase the chances of people moving into work, they are hugely valuable. It’s clear from the stories that the money had a direct impact on peoples’ sense of wellbeing and helped clear household debts.

“We’re calling on UK policymakers – and basic income advocates and detractors alike – to pause and pay close attention to the design of future minimum income trials in a way which considers participant experiences as much as trial design.”