THE amount of money households can claim in benefits would be capped in an independent Scotland, Alex Salmond has announced.
The First Minister backed the idea of a benefits cap - imposed by the Tory-LibDem Coalition earlier this year - as an expert panel began drawing up detailed plans for the welfare system of an independent Scotland.
He did not say whether the UK Government's £26,000 limit would be copied if Scots vote Yes next year.
It was also unclear whether his Government would set a figure when it publishes its long-awaited white paper on independence in November, as the new expert group will not report until early next year.
Asked if he supported a cap in an interview yesterday, the First Minister said: "If you have the right cap deployed in the right way, then that is a reasonable thing to have."
He said an all-new benefits system might not be introduced immediately of Scotland became independent.
He said: "We don't believe we can change everything overnight.
"We will inherit a structure of a benefits system and then we will make the changes that are required to take some of the hard edge off.
"We are not going to change the things which are sensible."
Attacking the "punitive" approach to the least well-off of UK Government, he added: "We believe we can make things better and fairer."
SNP ministers have pledged to abolish the so-called "bedroom tax," a cut in housing benefit for claimants deemed to have surplus rooms, if Scotland becomes independent.
Further details of a new system, to be based on "Scottish values," will be drawn up by a panel unveiled yesterday by Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Chaired by Martyn Evans, director of the Scottish Consumer Council, it succeeds a previous Government-appointed group that concluded an independent Scotland should share the UK welfare system for a transitional period.
It warned of "serious risks" to payments if a new system was brought in immediately.
Experts drafted in to the new group include Julia Unwin, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation; David Watt, head of the Institute of Directors in Scotland; and Annie Gunner Logan, director of the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland.
It will also include professors Jon Kvist, of the University of Southern Denmark; and Ailsa McKay of Glasgow Caledonian University.
A Scottish Labour spokesman said: "As usual, the First Minister is suitably vague about his plans for welfare in an independent Scotland.
"It now seems that the SNP are going to kick this further into the long grass by reporting back after the white paper.
"They can't keep their plans hidden forever.
"It's time they were honest about the hard choices they would face if they break up the United Kingdom."
The UK Government has capped benefits at £500 for working-age couples and lone parents and £350 for single people.
About 40,000 households will be affected, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.
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