A recently published TUC report revealed that young people’s failing long-term economic prospects will not be improved by cutting pensioner benefits in order to fund more public spending on younger people.
The publication titled, ‘Young against old? What’s really causing wealth inequality?’ found that the younger generation’s deteriorating prospects are due primarily to a combination of; increased university tuition fees, unemployment, poorer job opportunities, lower pay and a pretty consistent increase in housing prices.
Young people are often compared and contrasted with the older generation in these kinds of reports - an older generation which tends to have high levels of wealth. This has left many human resource experts questioning the validity of certain report results. This report, however, found that pensioners do not comprise the majority of the UK’s wealthiest households. The TUC actually found there are wealth inequalities within different age groups as well, which makes sense. Not all 60-80 year olds are wealthy, just like not all 20-30 year olds are poor.
The report did find patterns among different age groups that do offer up trends. For example, workers in their 40’s and 50’s who are high earners and home-owners proved more likely to be wealthy.
Ultimately, the report debunked the theory that wealth inequalities are strictly age driven. Beyond differences in wealth by age bracket, ‘Young against old?’ found wealth variations by region and nation. Again, certain HR experts wonder why a report even had to be performed in order to prove that wealth inequality exists, theoretically, in any kind of population segment. For example, there are multiple tiers to poor just as there are multiple levels of wealth.
Thankfully, the researchers were able to clearly show that removing certain benefits from pensioners to give the younger generation an easier time would not fix the wealth gap that currently exists. At the end of the day, at some point the government will have to step in and provide some sort of education.
