What would you do with £10K?
If you were given £10,000 what would you spend it on? Deposit for a house, education, starting up your own business?
Thinktank Resolution Foundation have proposed that everyone in Britain should receive £10k when they turn 25, in the hope to help close the generational divide and to ‘ensure a fair deal across the generations’.
The results from the two-year study suggest that by having this ‘citizen’s inheritance’ at an age where young people could use it to buy housing, retrain or start up a business, it’ll help redress the imbalance.
It is claimed it will also reduce the resentment that many people feel towards those born between 1946-65 – the baby boomers who are in a better position with housing and pensions than any subsequent generation.
Where would the money come from?
The thinktank say the £10,000 would come from a change to inheritance tax which is currently taxed at 40% above a £1m threshold. The new tax would be 20% on all gifts or inheritance throughout an individual’s life up to £500,000 and then at 30% above that.
A suggested new property tax has also come out of the report, which will generate an extra £2.3bn per year to the NHS in order to help meet the health and care needs of those over the age of 65. The idea is to scrap council tax and replace it with a scheme that will target wealthier homeowners.
What’s the catch?
Of course, it would be nice to spend it on what you wanted but the group said there would be restrictions on what it can be used for:
- housing
- education (such as re-training)
- starting up your own business
- putting towards a pension.
Millennials are half as likely as baby boomers to own their own home by the age of 30 and four times more likely to rent in the private sector.
What you said you’d spend it on?
When asked on our MoneyHelper Facebook page (Opens in a new window) what you would spend the money on, there were mixed opinions:
“I think it should be conditional. You can only spend it on Education or be building a business. Not to be spent on depreciating assets. Towards a mortgage deposit?” Jonathan
“Utter madness and that is coming from a millennial…50% would blow it and 40% would use it to clear student debt the last 10% might actually invest it wisely.” Jamie
“What about the rest of us who are still struggling!” Natalie
“That would have been nice 50 years ago but I had to work for my money.” Janet
“And where would this money come from? Give my 10,000 to the NHS, every little helps.” Kurt
