A slump in home ownership and less generous pensions have left those born in the early 1980s with only half the wealth of those born a decade earlier by the same stage of their lives, reports The Guardian.
In fresh evidence of the UK’s growing inter-generational divide, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has reported that people in their early 30s had average net household wealth of £27,000 from equity in their homes, the value of their pensions and other financial investments.
The thinktank said that those who were born in the early 1970s had accumulated household wealth of £53,000 by similar stage. It added that children of the 70s were themselves notably less wealthy than those born in the early 1960s.
Theresa May highlighted the problems young people face in buying their own home in her list of injustices to be tackled when she became prime minister. The House of Commons work and pensions select committee is conducting an inquiry into “intergenerational fairness”, which will investigate the issues the IFS has raised.
The report found that those born during the early 1980s were the first postwar generation not to enjoy higher incomes in early adulthood than those born in the previous decade.
