Cash-strapped millennials are cutting back on ‘fun’ while pensioners are splashing out on good times
CASH-STRAPPED millennials are cutting back on “fun” while pensioners splash out, a shock new report found last night.
In a report that laid bare the inter-generational divide, a think tank said 18-29 year-olds were having to spend £23 a week less on recreation, restaurants and booze than 20 years ago because of the rising cost of basics.
But OAPs are spending £47 more as they benefit from working longer and the Government’s ‘Triple Lock’ on their savings.
Overall, the Resolution Foundation said millennials were spending 7 per cent a week less on non-housing costs £380 – when inflation is taken into account.
But total discretionary spending among over 65s was up by a staggering 37 per cent to £390.
David Willetts, ex-Tory Minister and President of the Intergenerational Centre, said: “The big living standards gains that each generation used to enjoy over their predecessors have stalled.”
The report will spark fresh debate over the benefits afforded to OAPs – such as free TV licences and the winter fuel allowance. Resolution said it highlighted yet again the pressures on younger Brits.
There has been a 32 per cent increase in younger people living in ‘overcrowded accommodation’ since the mid-1990s.
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But Claire Turner Centre for Ageing Better warned MPs to “tread carefully”.
She said: “Comparing generations risks playing a game of statistical averages which could distract us from the very real poverty and disadvantage experienced by people across all ages.”
The survey came a day after the Institute of Fiscal Studies registered a fall in the share of working age people unable to afford basic items since 2010.
It claimed there were eight million people living in working households who were in relative poverty because of higher housing costs and sky-high rents.
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