The upcoming changes to the student loan system is yet another stealth tax on young people, which will hit middle-income and low-income graduates the hardest. In the press release, the government argues that these changes will ensure that the problem is not “passed on to future generations”, but the reality is quite the opposite. In… Read more »
Category: Taxation
Graduate tax grab by stealth
Graduates have been slapped with an increase to Plan 2 and postgraduate student loan repayments by stealth, which could cost an average earning graduate an additional £110 per year, writes IF volunteer Alana McSkimming Freezing the threshold The Government has announced plans to freeze the student loan repayment threshold. Although this may elicit a sigh… Read more »
The social care cap and the intergenerational contract
On 7 September 2021, the government announced reforms to the social care system in order to provide more support to people with fewer financial resources. A recent announcement on 17 November 2021 casts doubt on whether these reforms will be worth the costs borne by younger generations. John Hobby, IF researcher, investigates whether this is… Read more »
Rise in National Living Wage not enough to help younger people
The government announced a rise in the National Living Wage this week, presenting it as a win for lower-paid working people. Lizzie Simpson, IF Researcher, discusses the details of this rise in the context of inflation and rising costs of living, and questions the merit of the UK’s age-based minimum wage system. Changes to the… Read more »
National Insurance: young people and lower earners hit the hardest
Yesterday, MPs voted to approve raising employees’ National Insurance Contributions (NICs) by 1.25 percentage points, breaking a key manifesto promise not to raise taxes. While the government marketed the rise as “progressive”, in reality it is an intergenerationally unfair tax reform which will affect younger generations the most. Lizzie Simpson, IF Researcher, explains. A regressive… Read more »
Why we need to teach young people about tax
In this article for the Intergenerational Foundation, Carla Hoppe, Founder of Rethink Tax, explains why we need to talk to young people about tax, and how changes to our tax system could further the cause of intergenerational equality. “… Even just 10 minutes, just 10 minutes!” Comedian Tom Allen made the crowd at Live at… Read more »
National insurance, intergenerational fairness and paying for social care
Robert Ashton looks at how National Insurance could be changed for the better, raising more money to pay for social care without penalising younger generations, many of whom are already paying a greater part of their incomes than previous generations on high rents and student loan repayments. How can we make National Insurance work better… Read more »
The need to create a new property tax deal that benefits younger generations
In this contribution to IF’s Worldwide Blog Week, Andrew Dixon, Founder of Fairer Share, a UK-based property taxation campaign group, argues that now, more than ever, we need a new property tax deal that benefits younger generations Housing is an essential tool for achieving intergenerational fairness. However, it is clear that young people hoping to… Read more »
Generation Covid: how can we build back better and fairer across generations?
In this article, Tan Suee Chieh, Immediate Past-President of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, explains how young people globally could become a “lost generation” unless policy shifts towards prioritising the long term. During a war it is usually the young who are sent to do the fighting. If you view the pandemic as a… Read more »
The wretched ratchet of the triple lock on the state pension
Angus Hanton, IF Co-founder, explains why reform of the triple lock on the state pension must be implemented on intergenerational fairness grounds.