The Guardian view on the generation gap: youth clubbed

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/06/guardian-view-generation-gap-youth-clubbed

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Slowly but surely, the uncomfortable facts concerning Britain’s generational gulf are sinking in. The younger generation suffered four times the unemployment of the old during the slump, and – in the present recovery – are now more likely than the middle-aged to toil without any security, on zero-hours contracts. The wages of youth fell further and faster during the downturn, and this week’s Institute for Fiscal Studies figures suggesting that average living standards have at long last bounced back from the crisis, came with the caveat that twentysomethings are still 8% poorer than they were when the crunch came.

For the thoughtful left, such statistics are beginning to challenge the old assumption that class must always be the only social divide that counts. But for the thoughtful right too – with its traditional regard for family, and the stewardship of resources for the next generation – the economic chasm that’s emerging between the cohorts demands a serious reappraisal. For those trusty conservative cliches about getting on and getting ahead are unravelling. Students can get their heads down at college, but too many courses lead them nowhere. As for scrambling together a deposit for a first flat, some calculations suggest that young families are nowadays required to scrimp for a dozen years, others put the figure at 22. Either way, home ownership rates for 25-year-olds have halved in two decades and, save for those whose parents got lucky in the property market of the past, the first step on the ladder is moving out of reach.

Across the spectrum, then, reflective sorts can see a need to grapple with the age divide. Sadly, reflective sorts are not getting much of a look-in during the election campaign. Labour’s raid on big pension pots in order to cut college fees stands out as about the only visible move that either side has made in the generation game. When it comes to social security, where bigger bucks are involved, the parties have instead taken to playing political snap, to the detriment of the young. Last week, David Cameron did what he did last time, and promised to protect every last pensioner’s bus pass, fuel payment and free TV licence. If this was a rather extravagant promise for an austerity-fixated politician in 2010, it sounds positively lavish after the country has learned how protection for older benefit claimants comes hand-in-hand with an unprecedented assault on payments for younger people. They are enduring interminable freezes, bedroom taxes, sanctions and more besides. Put it all together and the reduction in notional entitlements tots up to something like a quarter – with more to come under George Osborne’s plans. One might have hoped that opposition would have challenged the presumption always, in effect, to punish the young, by protecting the old. Indeed, Labour had looked to be opening that discussion when it said that it would withdraw winter fuel payments from the very richest pensioners. But this week, Ed Miliband slammed that debate shut before it had started, affirming that this move, which shaves a mere 0.1% off benefit spending on older people, will be the one and only sacrifice that he would require them to make.

This implies that whoever wins in May, social security could continue to be squeezed, with a bias against the young. Much worse, however, was to come on Thursday, when the Conservatives signalled that they are now looking at a fresh cut squarely targeted on one very young group – children born into large families. These are not the terms in which they are pitching plans to restrict child benefit to the first three kids, of course: the spin is about “personal responsibility”, as if children were a consumer choice. But that perspective puts all emphasis on the position of the parents, and neglects the welfare of the child. The more cynical central office operators may also think they are blowing a dog whistle here, since there are many more big families in some minority communities.

Westminster as a whole appears to lack the resolve to restore balance to the generational scales. The Tories, in particular, appear bent on giving them another tug on behalf of the old. With all data and serious analysis pointing to the fading fortunes of the young, it really is time that Britain’s middle-aged politicians grew up.