On Tuesday, the think tank released a detailed, two-year study dubbed "A New Generational Contract," proposing a 'citizen's inheritance'. This, it says, will not only help millennials get a leg up during the expensive family-raising years, but reduce resentment toward the baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1965) which proved significantly luckier than subsequent generations in terms of housing, pensions and other benefits.
The report points out that millennials are half as likely to own their own home by age 30 than baby boomers, and four times as likely to rent from the private sector, spending nearly a quarter of their overall income on housing. They're also more likely to have insecure work contracts not only than baby boomers, but their generation X predecessors. At the same time, millennials have higher overall employment, including among women. Nevertheless, their disposable incomes are not only stagnant, but falling, with 25-34 year olds today spending 15% less than their predecessors did in 2001.
"Younger generations are bearing more risks and holding fewer assets than their predecessors. We need to redress that imbalance if we are to maintain the promise of an asset-owning democracy," the report says.
The proposed payment would be funded by modifying the inheritance tax, with a proposed 20% tax on all gifts or inheritances up to £500,000, and 30% on anything above that. It is hoped that the payment would help tackle the widening generational and social mobility gap.
Taxes or not, it remains unclear how the proposed funding proposal will fair amid the UK's national debt of £1,7 trillion, equivalent to 88% of GDP.
Ordinary Brits seem divided over the merits over the proposal, with some suggesting that millennials would immediately waste the money, others saying this was a "nosense from the left," and others still suggesting that it's a good idea, but that something more significant is needed.
Government think tank considers giving 25 year old millennials £10,000 to help them out financially.
— Pete (@Pete_Cee) 8 мая 2018 г.
MP: Great idea. That’ll absolutely work.
Millennial: Just picked up my cheque. Boom!
Seconds later…. pic.twitter.com/KcXRnQmh03
Give them what we had, free education, council housing, properly funded NHS, welfare safety net & HOPE that their children don’t do what babyboomers have, given license to ToryGovt to plough neoliberal path.
— Diane Hain #FBPE (@dianehain) 8 мая 2018 г.
£10,000 pittance of what Tories have taken. https://t.co/OkEPpL5NMc
Why stop at £10k? Why not just confiscate houses from those who have worked and saved for them and give them to the poor dears.
— Voice of Reason (@brexitblog_info) 8 мая 2018 г.
This pathetic “free stuff” nonsense from the left is now beyond parody. https://t.co/xglz8HNRC1
Give millennials £10,000 each to tackle generation gap, says thinktank. MUCH better than continuing to give QE cash to banks who stash it away. This age group will put it straight back into circulation. https://t.co/Tgq3Me6MK0
— Irene Short (@ipasho) 8 мая 2018 г.
Interesting. Maybe giving 25 yr olds £ can help address intergenerational unfairness, but we shouldn’t kid ourselves it is an effective way to address the problem of unaffordable houses for that generation. (That would be building more affordable homes).https://t.co/uO1FPfHp2p
— Rob Warm (@robwarm1) 8 мая 2018 г.
