Should all 25- year-olds be given a £10,000 ‘inheritance’?

a THINK tank proposing that all 25-year-olds get £10,000, while older people are targeted to pay more tax (mail), would have the effect of discouraging a generation at the very time they should be at their most dynamic and risk taking. Ironically, the bank of Grandad and Grandma already helps out the younger generation. The simple way of improving the ‘generational contract’ is to make giving more taxefficient. If I give a gift of more than £3,000 in a year, I have to live for seven years to ensure it is not liable for inheritance tax. Why not raise this to £10,000? RICHARD WITTERING,

Milton Keynes, Bucks.

IN 1961, we married with a joint income of £1,200 a year and bought a house for £1,950 on a 5 per cent fixed-interest

HOW can a free gift of £10,000 help youngsters get on the property ladder? It would barely pay the solicitor’s fees let alone a deposit. R. BALL, Farnborough, Hants.

loan, using our modest savings over three years as a deposit. Today, there is little chance of many young people buying a home of their own when the average salary is under £20,000, with minimum wage jobs and zero hour contracts the norm.

DAVE WooD, Colchester, Essex.

MY FATHER spent his 25th birthday in 1942 as a prisoner of war on Crete.

RoBERT BoLTon, southport, Merseyside. WE SO CALLED ‘baby boomers’ didn’t have things handed to us on a plate. We struggled to save for a down payment on a house. Today’s young want to have a good time at the weekend and have the latest gadgets. Giving them a lump sum of £10,000 will only pay off their credit card bill. This suggestion of free money at 25 will only widen the generational gap, causing resentment on both sides.

MARGoT DARBY, Haddenham, Cambs.

I WAS once 25, so can I have £10,000 for nothing? Bank details to follow.

MARK CoHEn, Manchester. THE real problem millennials have is the failure of successive governments to build enough houses, which has forced up prices. JoHn KnIGHT, sleaford, Lincs.

IT’S hypocritical of Lord Willetts proposing giving all 25-year-olds £10,000 when he instigated the rise in student fees to £9,000 a year.

P. WILKInson, Woodbridge, suffolk.