to agree It is pensioners, rather than the rich, who are growing richer.

[marryj]

From someone at institute of fiscal studies -www.ifs.org.uk/publications/7276

www.ft.com/cms/s/0/53a4b2fa-0b69-11e4-9e55-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3LFCf5Gay

From what I see, each year there is a widening generation inequality. Many studies have shown since the coalition came in the young are far worse of but pensioners have never been richer.

The generation with the highest income is now pensioners, despite them having significantly less outgoings as no young children to raise and for most they have paid off their mortgage. Things are very bleak in the job market with graduates with 30k+ of debt taking nmw jobs and only 20% are likely to get out of nmw after 10 years.

Oh I know boomers didn't rig the market, what I do take issue with is when they claim to of "worked hard for every single penny" when in fact they have just been very lucky, I'm looking at you mil.

Most welfare is given to people in need, apart from when pensioners are concerned.

Current gov policies are increasing the generation inequality, this isn't right.

I won't have to worry about being supported by the state for a couple of decades as I'm under 40 and my generation on average will be paying more into the system than they take out. Someones got to fund all these public sector state pensions and people being supported by the state for several decades. Even though I won't get these benefits myself.

Oh I know boomers didn't rig the market, what I do take issue with is when they claim to of "worked hard for every single penny" when in fact they have just been very lucky
You cannot generalise. I worked hard before and after I had my children. I received 18 weeks maternity allowance for first child, and family allowance when my 2nd child was born. Those were the only benefits we received. I have paid tax and NI on all I have earned. The only thing we have had on credit is our mortgage. Most of our furniture was second hand. Even now we do not own expensive flat screens, ipads and iphones, just an old PC and a simple mobile phone.
As I said before, if I started moaning about younger people on benefits with all the latest gadgets, smoking and drinking, then I know I would be called an uncaring person, and told that they deserve it.

Apparently you cant claim Carers Allowance and state pension at the same time.

The person you are caring for can claim Attendance Allowance if over 65 BUT we got nothing because my mum went into hospital before 6 months of caring was up.
You have to have needed help for at least 6 months. (If you’re terminally ill you can make a claim straight away.)

It's not helped by the fact that the last government raided the pension pot, which has contributed to the fact that our national insurance is being paid directly to today's pensioners... www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-1692321/Has-Labour-really-ransacked-our-pensions.html

A pensioner I know had a interview for work today as the fuel bills are a nightmare for him.

Sorry it's taken me a while to respond. I've been busy polishing my tiara, giving my housekeeper her instructions and discussing my trip to Rio with my private pilot. I'll be with you when I've taken delivery of the new Rolls...

You cannot generalise. I worked hard before and after I had my children. I received 18 weeks maternity allowance for first child, and family allowance when my 2nd child was born. Those were the only benefits we received.

the difference is that a generation ago, most families had only one earner. Nowadays, that's far less true, making the need to two earners more necessary (for things we all compete for, say property, you need two earners to keep up). So, while benefits may have been more meagre (however, see below), you didn't need two earners like you do now.

As I said before, if I started moaning about younger people on benefits with all the latest gadgets, smoking and drinking, then I know I would be called an uncaring person, and told that they deserve it.

the young spend more money on gadgets because that is what they can realistically afford. While they get a pittance in state help now, the older generation got right to buy on a grand scale, university tuition and a sane property scene. They got help on a much bigger scale in the things that REALLY matter. most young people, I would guess, see it as literally impossible for them to buy a house, so why bother saving? if the choice is saving for 300 years for a house or getting that iphone now, it's a pretty clear choice.

Great post written. Although it is a lost cause here when so many don't think things are any harder for today's youngsters when it is significantly on just about every measure.

Who has said it isn't harder for young people these days? That's not what your thread is about.

You can't generalise about whole generations the way you're trying to, it just doesn't work. Everyone will know someone who has rorted the system one way or another, even groups of people - but that still doesn't necessarily offer a representative sample of the whole of that generation.

It's not as simple as that. For generations in my family women and men both worked so the suggestion women didn't is just not true. Even in 1910 my great aunt worked as a nurse and two of her sisters ran a shop. My grandmother took herself off to India to work as a servant. There has not been some past lovely golden age.

I don't think anyone one here has worked fulltime for 30 year without a break and used 2 weeks of annual leave to have babies in as I have done. They aren't prepared to. They are in that sense lazier and more entitled. So of course they won't be so well off. Tough -their choice. As for buying properties now except for big cities prices are not that high every where. we all started very small in places many young people now would turn their noses up at as they expect perfection instantly rather than decades without holidays. By all means sit here now say oh woe is me, the £7k a year state pension these people contributed towards for 40 years of NI contributions ought to be ripped from them but don't forget university for the 15% of us who went when I went was not entirely free- We didn't get a full grant. My patrents have to pay./ only the poor had a full grant. There are a lot of myths built up about how easy life was in the past. We were paying 8 - 12% interest rates. No tax credits and no childcare help of course at all.

What I want for women now is to set aside whinging and learn from older women how to hvae a really good life. How to invest. How to build up a career. How to beat others to be the best at the job you do. how to ask for more pay at work. how to build up businesses outside work and do the 2 jobs each we both ended up doing whicvh diversification was part of the reason we did okay when so many of my generation graduating 30 years ago did not. Be in the winner category. Don't whinge - just take the action you need to take to be a winner. Learn from older women on mumsnet. Most of the UK has always been populated by people who think they will never amount to much, who won't work very hard, who look in the black side and never get far. Move yourself from that category into the few who actually do work hard and smart and do well and go to what I call "hjam tomorrow" - putting off nice things today like eating out and holidays so they can have more tomorrow. Take on that second job. Go back to work after the baby is born in a few weeks and you can have this jammy lovely life those of us who have made sacrifices usually achieve.

I find it hard to watch the increasingly prevalent 'rats in a cage' attitude where people look around for someone to blame for whatever they feel they lack.

My 83 year old mother actually did work hard all her life. She and my dad had little education and my dad dug up roads to make ends meet. They raised their children and my mother started a play group and then got a job in her late 50s
My dad died, still in work, at 73.
My mum lives on next to nothing in a housing association house and watching every penny.

She endlessly talks with huge sympathy about how hard things are for young people.

But then she is smart and not a myopic arsehole.

you can't separate the top 1% owning 50% of wealth from pensioners as a proportion of them will be pensioners . And a lot of pensioners will be in top 10% (just owning half a house)

yes pag and my mum says it was easier for their generation. That said at times in the past it was much harder than it is now.

The baby boomer generation is an anomaly. Never has a generation had so much before, and unlikely will have as much after. You play the cards you're dealt with.

I don't get this idea that generation ago women didn't work outside the home. I'm 60 and never met a woman who did not work outside the home until I came to Australia. That would be my NDN.

Both my parents worked full time when i was at school back in the 80s. Out of the ppl in my class at school my mum was full time there were 2 or 3 mums who were part time and the rest were SAHMS.

I agree that it's harder for young people. We may have started off in dreadful, mouldy house shares but we knew it was just a temporary thing. I'm really fearful for my teenage son.

Where I part company with you, op is over framing it as old versus young. As several posters have pointed out, 1% of people own half of the world's wealth so for me it beggars belief that people point the finger at pensioners.

I also disagree that pensioners don't know what's going on. Maybe we're talking about a different age group but the retired people I know (mostly under 70) are parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles and they see it for themselves. The ones who got lump sums spent the money on their children. They don't downsize because their kids are still living with them or because they're desperate to pass the house on when they die cos they think it's the only way their kids will ever get on the housing ladder. Of course that only fuels the market even more but my point is, they're not unaware.

All anecdotal but just as valid as the 'my in-laws-have-3-holidays-a-year' stories.

I returned to work in 1982 and worked full time until I retired. So my children had 2 full time working parents. My mum was widowed when I was 6 and my sister was 4. She worked full time until she retired. She also was the carer for her mum and dad. I got a grant of £30 a term to go to college, but when my mum's widows pension went up she was supposed to pay me 10 shillings a week. Yes there will be pensioners who are very well off, just the same as there are younger people who are rich. Footballers, pop stars, Simon Cowell to mention a few. There will be people who milk the benefits system and disability allowances system but I certainly do not think it is everyone.

There also used to be no minimum wage in my life time too.

Anyway I always think it's a bit pointless to try to compare generations as all we can do is cope with the time we are in now. Older people have children and they house and help them and I certainly remember 30 years ago my hundreds of applications for jobs on graduating in the depths of a recession which was so bad almost a generation of even graduates did not find good jobs. I don't deny the 2008 crash was bad but I don't think we saw quite the hunger and children with bare feet my father's father remembered after the 1929 crash.

we could certainly remove winter fuel allowance and free bus passes from richer older people or simpler remove it from anyone under 85. I am not sure that will help though as we really need to half the cost of the state and have not seen anything yet whoever wins the next election in terms of cuts to make the books balance.

Greengrow There also used to be no minimum wage in my life time too.

There also used to be virtually no unpaid internships lasting a year or more and people in good jobs in middle age barely receiving any salary increases to keep up with inflation year after year. Employers use far more dirty tricks now.

I don't see any reason why you shouldn't compare generations. Quite frankly, not enough research has been done into the inter-generational social effects of widening access standards to higher education while heavily indebting graduates to do so. If we did do more comparing of generations, or if our government did, it would probably be very beneficial.

I don't actually think its possibly to cut the cost of the State in the UK - for political reasons. There would be an outcry if you tried to remove tax credits, or cut benefit numbers, or harden access to education to the more able - no government would be able to do that as they would be unelectable. In many ways we live in a sort of forced socialism by the minority - I've lived in The Netherlands and in Sweden, which are generally considered more progressive and socialist, yet there was far more condemnation of people who didn't work, even some disabled people, and benefits were linked to former employment. So the longer you worked, the better benefits (and health care schemes) you got.

Welll... ahem... even Labour are promising absolutely massive cuts the like of which we have never seen so yes of course we can cut the cost of the state.

Internships in law firms are full paid in university holidays. I know others don't pay. Fashion has never paid. Lots of graduates where they can get a job go into paid work even today though. It is not the case that most graduates graduate and then work for a year without pay.

There was wage inflation because the rate of inflation was higher eg in the 1970s inflation rose 60% over three years after the property crash.

Any comparison of generations is going to show that people today have things so much better than just about all earlier eras. 15% of people went to university when I did so 85% did not get the chance and could not get good graduate jobs. I don't think that was better.

Basically now if you go into fashion you won't get paid much ever and 30 years ago if you did the same. It's one of those jobs like acting where fools enter it or those who aren't bight enough to pass the exams for something like medicine. Very few make it. |It might seem fun but you don't do it if you are going to need to feed yourself.