Is it fair that Sturgeon household on £200k a year gets free benefits? DEPUTY First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today insisted the SNP Government will be "proud" to protect Scotland's free universal benefits. Johann Lamont and Nicola Sturgeon debate free universal benefits at FMQs Labour commission into Scotland's benefits Ms Sturgeon enjoys a household income of more than £200,000, Johann Lamont told MSPSs today. The Labour leader asked why wealthy people like this should get benefits like free prescription charges. Finance expert Professor Arthur Midwinter is to head a Labour commission into Scotland's benefits which also include free concessionary travel, it was announced this week. But Ms Sturgeon said during First Ministers Questions at Holyrood today: "If Johann Lamont wants to make that the dividing line in Scottish politics, I only have one thing to say - bring it on." The Deputy First Minister said Ms Lamont's advisers had initially indicated that concessionary travel on public transport for over 60s may be excluded from the review, but Prof Midwinter confirmed today that "everything is on the table." Ms Sturgeon, standing in for Alex Salmond who is in the US for the Ryder Cup, said: "There's lots of things you can call that kind of approach from Labour - shambolic is the name that immediately springs to my mind. Let me tell Johann Lamont something for free - it's not brave and it's certainly not honest. This Government will put forward balanced Budgets. It's not easy when those Budgets are being cut by the Tories, but that's why we argue for the control of our own resources. Labour believe the current system of widespread free benefits is starving public services of vital cash and leading to further cuts in areas like free personal care for the elderly. But the Labour leader told MSPs that Ms Sturgeon "lives in a household with an income of over £200,000 a year." "She gets free prescriptions," Ms Lamont added. Free prescriptions cost £57 million a year. How many nurses is that? Like me, she (Ms Sturgeon) will save more than £400 from the council tax freeze, yet my children's school and schools across the country are getting to the stage where they can't do the basics like photocopying materials. If spending cuts threaten the kind of free care for the elderly that we want to deliver, is it fair that a woman like her on two hundred grand gets free prescriptions? Is it fair that the Sturgeon household on £200,000 a year gets universal benefits when families on average earnings pay more for childcare than they do for their mortgage?