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IEA reacts to proposal for Government to handout £10,000 to millennials to fix intergenerational unfairness

Commenting on the Resolution Foundation’s proposal that every person in Britain should receive £10,000 when they turn 25, Kate Andrews, News Editor at the Institute of Economic Affairs said:

“Why should the salary of a 40 year old person, earning the minimum wage, be redistributed to top-up a 25 year old, earning double or triple the average national income? There is nothing progressive about cash transfers that are based on age. This proposal stands in opposition to the fundamental principle of welfare safety nets: that resources are redistributed to those who are most in need.

“The UK is facing a major intergenerational crisis, and the Resolution Foundation’s commission has highlighted an array of areas, including housing and healthcare, where young people are getting a raw deal. But a one-off cash transfer would only address the symptoms of these deep-rooted problems, which require an overhaul of state restrictions and structures.

“£10,000 is a large sum of money, but with the cost of living so wildly out of control, this kind of pay-out wouldn’t be near enough for many young people to pay off their debts or get on to the housing ladder. A much more effective and less costly approach would be to liberalise our restrictive planning system to bring down the cost of housing altogether.

“What is essentially a short-term bribe will not distract young people from the barriers to entry they face when trying to transfer into adulthood.”

Notes to editors: 

For media enquiries please contact Nerissa Chesterfield, Communications Officer: nchesterfield@iea.org.uk or 0207 799 8920 or 07791 390 268

For more on how to bring the cost of housing down, click here.

For more on taxation reform including that of inheritance tax, click here.

The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems and seeks to provide analysis in order to improve the public understanding of economics.

The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.