Invest to give every child trust fund on adulthood

Completely support some kind of minimum income to ensure people don't fall below the poverty line but also think there need to be measures to ensure that people growing up in Scotland have the means to be able to create a life which shouldn't required that kind of assistance. To do this, the Scottish Government could acquire or create assets* which are likely to gain value in time. Then, assign a proportion of income from those assets to children, starting with those born into the least wealthy families and those with a disabled family member from the year of birth until the age of 18, held in effectively a trust fund that they receive on adulthood. If a child becomes disabled, then they should become eligible for this programme from the point at which this occurs because of the greatly increased difficulty of getting into work for the first time for young disabled people. The same applies to those who become young carers.

*Assets might be traditional investment options, a programme of building green homes / businesses with a proportion of rent going to local authorities for services and a proportion being held for children's funds, investment in green energy, technology companies. Some small scale versions of this exist elsewhere in the world, for example children in a native American community receive a share of profits from a casino built on tribal land. This has greatly widen options for young people to build a more prosperous life through better education, starting own businesses etc and has reduced poverty overall.

In time, this could greatly reduce the amount that would need to be spent on benefits and allow support to be very targeted to those in crises instead of those who just happened to be born into poverty or acquired a disability in childhood and were trapped there. It should improve equality of opportunity as young adults would have the means to undertake advanced study, start businesses, spend time volunteering, instead of having to accept low paid casualised work which they will struggle to get out of. Mental health will likely be improved because finances will be less pressured, again reducing burden on services, and it might even help people buy first homes faster, reducing monthly outgoings which make it impossible for 'generation rent' to save.