All Consuming Pressures: The cost-of-living crisis facing younger generations

IF’s latest report, supported by Yorkshire Building Society, looks at how much different age groups have to spend on a basket of essentials goods and services in order to investigate how the changing cost of living has affected younger generations:

Under-35s households spend close to two thirds (63%) of their weekly expenditure on essentials;
40% of total weekly expenditure for the under-35s goes on just housing, domestic utilities and transport;
Under-35 households in the bottom income quintile have to devote over 70% of their weekly expenditure budget on essentials;
The share of expenditure taken up by essentials fell by 14% for over-65s’ households.

In addition, a YouGov nationally representative survey of 1,003 adults in England, Scotland and Wales, conducted as part of the research, found that:

Only 13% of over-50s correctly answered that the under-35s have to spend two-thirds of their weekly expenditure on essentials
42% of those surveyed underestimated just how much the average young adult has to spend on essentials.
1-in-4 over-50s surveyed said that knowing the real figure would make them more likely to give to a younger relative.

The report calls for policy-makers to raise the annual gifting allowance, currently set at £3,000, and not uprated since 1981, in line with inflation.