An Extraordinary Anomaly: Why workers over state pension age should pay National Insurance

An extraordinary anomaly currently exists in the UK tax system. There is a serious imbalance in the tax treatment of UK workers who belong to different age groups. People who work beyond their state pension age become exempt from paying National Insurance contributions, a tax break which the Intergenerational Foundation believes has now become impossible to… Read more »

Rigged: How the North Sea oil and gas industry is undermining future generations

This paper explains how each child in the UK could be handed a toxic bill of up to £3,000 if the government allows North Sea oil and gas companies to escape their decommissioning obligations. The bill for the expensive legacy of decommissioning 3,000 pipelines covering 8,000 kilometres, 5,000 wells, 250 fixed installations and 250 subsea… Read more »

Weaponising Interest Rates: How UK governments have set interest rates to the detriment of the young

This paper calls on the Government to stop using the interest rates it controls in ways that penalise the young. It investigates the use of different interest rates set by government departments by the age of the borrower or saver. The paper demonstrates that over recent years governments have decided that “age” is a justifiable basis… Read more »

Youth Quake: Young people and the 2017 General Election

This academic audit of political party offers to younger generations concludes that the Conservative party will have to do much more to attract the youth vote. Written by Dr James Sloam and Muhammad Rakib Ehsan, Royal Holloway, University of London, the report explores why some political parties did better than others at re-engaging younger generations,… Read more »

Generation Remain: Understanding the Millennial vote

“The most detailed analysis we have to date on why young people voted as they did” (from the foreword by Dr Manmit Bhambra, LSE European Institute’s Generation Brexit project lead). This IF report identifies four different “tribes” of Millennial voters in the EU Referendum. The multi-faceted analysis, which uses latent class analysis to segment the… Read more »

Tall Tales: Graduate prospects in the UK labour market

The number of graduates in non-graduate jobs has remained stubbornly high at more than 46% for recent graduates over the period when university fees were tripled, rising to 35% for non-recent graduates. This paper looks as recent Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures and argues that there appears to be no graduate premium for many… Read more »

The Economic Inefficiency of Student Fees in England

This report by Dr Kevin Albertson, Professor of Economics at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, argues that the public benefits of a young person getting a higher education qualification more than outweigh the costs according to the government’s own figures. By comparing the costs and benefits of higher education, Albertson concludes that the nation should bear… Read more »

Packhorse Generation: The long debt tail of student loans

This report concentrates on student loans taken out to cover student fees. It does not include the additional costs of student maintenance loans taken out to cover living costs. Written by Estelle Clarke, IF advisory board member, the report follows the likely interest that will be charged to graduates over a 30-year loan term and… Read more »

Generations Apart? The growth of age segregation in England and Wales

Young and old are growing apart – this is the key finding from Generations Apart, the Intergenerational Foundation’s latest piece of research which measures the extent of age segregation across England and Wales. The report found that over the past 25 years profound changes have occurred in the patterns of where younger and older people… Read more »