Is this the closest we will get to a UBI experiment?

>Should we be really watching closely economic data to see what happens with these payments?

I don't think this is a good data metric.

There's a difference between how people will spend money in a crisis where they have bills and an unexpected loss of income, verses how people will spend regular excess income in normal times when they are able to predict their inflows and outflows of cash.

Spending will be quite different I'd imagine. It's well established that in times of economic difficulty spending on luxury items tends to decrease. Not to mention, many means of luxury spending are currently shut down.

It's about as far from a useful experiment as possible. One off non-universal payments during a time when unemployment is at an all time high, and no corresponding tax rises to fund it.

No, in 1969, during the Nixon administration, experiments were conducted, and a bill was almost passed to provide guaranteed income to poor people.

UBI is social security.