Millennials should receive £10,000 from the government to tackle generation gap says commission
The government should introduce a £10,000 “citizen’s inheritance” for all 25-year-olds as part of a bid to boost millennials’ prospects, according to a commission bringing together top business groups and trade union bosses.
The Intergenerational Commission will also propose a new £2.3bn National Health Service levy on pensioners’ earnings, a progressive property tax to replace council tax, and the halving of stamp duty for first-time buyers to give them a leg up in the housing market.
Bosses from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Legal and General chief executive Nigel Wilson were among the commissioners advising on the recommendations, which would represent a radical reorientation of the relationship between the generations.
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Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director general, said: “The idea that each generation should have a better life than the previous one is central to the pursuit of economic growth. The fact that it has broken down for young people should therefore concern us all.
“We need individuals, businesses and the state to pull together to address this challenge, and lift the living standards of young and future generations.”
The commission’s recommendations come at a time when increasing inequality between the generations has risen in political salience, with higher job insecurity for millennials at a time when many struggle to get onto the housing ladder without help from parents.
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Up to a third of millennials face living in private rented accommodation for their whole lives, according to previous research by the Resolution Foundation, which convened the commission.
While renting is more common in other European nations, home ownership remains a potent political symbol in the UK. The commission suggests its policy of halving stamp duty for first-time buyers only will rebalance younger people’s power in the market. The commission will also suggest a time-limited capital gains tax cut for selling properties onto first-time buyers.
The citizen’s inheritance would allow young people to start businesses or put down a deposit for a house, the commission will say. It would be funded by replacing inheritance tax with a new “lifetime receipts” tax, stopping the avoidance of inheritance tax through gifts earlier in life.
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