Calls for £10,000 ‘citizen’s inheritance’ for all 30-year-olds

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The next government should hand all 30-year-olds a £10,000 “citizen’s inheritance” to tackle growing inequality as wealth shifts between generations, a Tory peer has suggested. As new analysis suggests that a hugely uneven £1.5trn wealth transfer to millennials is set to deepen current inequalities, Lord David Willetts warned that “we are going to have some very rich inheritors and a growing number of people who never get on the housing ladder and rent until old age”. Cautioning that not enough has been done to spread wealth since Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation drive and right-to-buy scheme, the Tory peer and president of the Resolution Foundation think-tank has again raised the notion of a “citizen’s inheritance”. However the IFS found that one in 10 millennials are set to get nothing, while the top 10 per cent will receive more than £500,000 each, as annual inheritance handovers rise by a third to hit £145bn by 2033. open image in gallery David Willetts has previously called for a As a result, inheritance will only boost lifetime incomes by 5 per cent for millennials from the poorest fifth of families, in contrast with 29 per cent for the richest fifth, according to the think-tank.