Young people will be poorer than their parents

IN research undertaken by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) it appears that the current youngsters, also known as Millennials, will be poorer than their parents at every single stage of their lives. 

The IFS looked at the development of household wealth over the years, 2006 to 2008 and 2010 to 2012. The results show that, unlike previous generations, the current generation of youngsters will actually be worse off than their parents. 

Furthermore 24 percent of households currently aged 25-34 are not counting on any state pension once they are old enough to enjoy their golden years, though another 30 per cent did expect it to be their main source of income. More worrying is that 50 percent of Millennials don´t expect any income from private pension either.

Rowena Crawford, a Senior Research Economist at the IFS and co-author of the report, said: “It is striking how many individuals do not expect private pensions to have a role in financing their retirement, let alone be their main source of income.”

One hope for the younger generation is their expected inheritance which 28 per cent name as part of their financial support for when they retire.

A silver lining in the IFS report was, that despite the financial crisis, wealth among working-age household did increase more on average than inflation.