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A think tank is suggesting giving all millennials in the UK £10,000

A Citizen’s Inheritance would be generated by increased inheritance tax allowing 25-year-olds to spend the cash on housing deposits or on skills, entrepreneurship and pension saving

A young person, seen from above, sits on the floor looking through a stack of bills in front of a laptop

Every 25-year-old in the country should receive a gift-wrapped £10,000 government grant to help plug the gap between generations, according to a think tank.

Resolution Foundation’s proposed Citizen’s Inheritance would be generated by a beefed-up inheritance tax allowing millennials to spend the cash on housing deposits or on skills, entrepreneurship and pension saving.

The recommendation is just one of ten from the think tank’s Intergenerational Commission – which undertook a two-year study into inequality.

With the backing of the trade union group TUC and business lobbyists the CBI, the report warned that the millennial generation are the first to see their earnings dip below the rates their parents earned at the same age while also being unable to get a foot on the housing ladder.

To help tackle this, the Resolution Foundation is proposing that indeterminate tenancies should become the sole form of contract with rent rises tied to inflation for three-year periods.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Council tax should also be ditched in favour of progressive property tax that has additional surcharges for second or empty homes while measures to get the stagnant property market moving includes halving stamp duty rates and time-limited capital gains tax cuts to encourage owners with second homes to sell to first-time buyers.

Plans for a £2.3bn NHS levy, funded by national insurance contributions from pensioners, aim to prop up healthcare while a £2bn social care boost could come from reformed property taxation.

On the jobs front, the think tank is proposing better employments rights with a regular contract for people working regular zero-hour contract shifts as well as notice periods for other shift workers and strengthened statutory rights for the self-employed.

A £1bn ‘Better Jobs Deal’ to allow young workers to move careers and £1.5bn to protect technical training reports were also proposed, with money coming from cancelling 1p of the upcoming corporation tax cut to cover it.

David Willetts, executive chair of the Resolution Foundation, said: “Many people no longer believe that Britain is delivering on its obligations to young and old. But our Commission shows how Britain can rise to this challenge.”

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