Late Baby Boomers Gained on Tuition, Housing and 15%-20% Pensions, Analysis Finds
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · May 17
Late Baby Boomers Gained on Tuition, Housing and 15%-20% Pensions, Analysis Finds
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · May 17
Born in the early 1960s, many late baby boomers hit three advantages at once: free or subsidised university, cheaper entry into housing before the mid-1990s price surge, and access to defined-benefit pensions.
Higher education is the most mixed case: England’s system now leaves some graduates with debts such as £75,500, but participation rose to 49% of state-school pupils by age 25 in 2022/23 from 19.3% in 1990.
Housing delivered the clearest windfall for those who bought early, especially in London, where the adult population grew 29% between 1996 and 2021 while homes increased 23%, helping drive prices higher.
Pensions look most favorable to boomers overall: private employers typically contributed 15%-20% of salary to defined-benefit schemes, versus about 3% for the defined-contribution plans now common for younger workers.
The analysis argues the deeper source of intergenerational strain is weaker growth since 2007/08, with per-capita income growth nearer 1% a year this century versus roughly 2% in the 1980s and 1990s.
With a £210bn pension surplus, could this boomer windfall help fix the housing and debt crises for the young?
Is the UK's generational war a distraction from the real enemy: two decades of near-zero economic growth?