Eighties children hit hardest by the stagnation in pay

PEOPLE born in the 1980s are only half as well off as those born in the 1970s were at the same age, new research has revealed.

By their early 30s, people born in the decade dominated by Margaret Thatcher have an average net wealth of £27,000, including housing, financial, and private pension assets.

This is significantly lower than the £53,000 enjoyed by those born in the 1970s at the same stage in life, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

The survey found children of the early 1980s find it much harder to build up wealth in housing and pensions as they age, and are the first post-war cohort not to have higher incomes than those born in the previous decade.

That is because of an overall stagnation in working-age incomes, and due to the financial crash hitting young adults the hardest.

Andrew Hood, of the IFS, said: “Sharp falls in home-ownership rates and in access to generous company pension schemes, alongside historically low interest rates, will make it much harder for today’s young adults to build up wealth.”

Soaring house prices mean those born in the 1980s have the lowest home ownership rates for any generation in half a century.

Just 40 per cent are owner-occupiers at the age of 30, compared with at least 55 per cent of those born in previous post-war decades at the same stage in life.

Children of the 1980s renting by their late 20s spend 30 per cent of their net income on housing costs. Those with their own homes spend 15 per cent, compared with the 20 per cent paid by people born in the 1960s at the same age.

Pensions also represent a major loss due to the disappearance of many generous defined benefit (DB) schemes.

Less than 10 per cent of private sector employees born in the early 1980s are members of a DB scheme, compared with more than 15 per cent of those born in the 1970s, and 40 per cent of those born in the 1960s. A MEMBER of staff at Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s House for an Art Lover in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, poses as the legendary Scottish architect and designer.

Visitors to the city’s St Enoch Centre will be able to use virtual reality goggles to delve into the vision and style of the buildings that Mackintosh created.

The new technology will be available throughout next month in the shopping centre, as part of the Mackintosh Festival.

There is also an exhibition of work by Glasgow schoolchildren on display.

With many people still discovering his contributions to both Glasgow and Art Nouveau, the month-long event, which is in its fifth year, is also celebrating the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design. Picture: Martin Shields.