New tax urged to help millennials

Britain's baby-boom generation should be clobbered with higher taxes, so more money can be channeled toward the young, according to the findings of a new study conducted by an influential think tank.

The Resolution Foundation, a research and policy organization, wants older Britons to finance a one-off 10,000-pound ($13,500) payment to United Kingdom residents as they turn 25.

The foundation said the money would help fix the "broken" relationship between the post-Generation X cohort - so-called millennials - and the first generation born after World War II. That older group, which is known as the babyboom generation, is often seen as relatively wealthy because it benefitted from a strong social welfare system, cheap housing, plentiful work, and economic stability.

The BBC reported that David Willetts, executive chairman of the Resolution Foundation, fears younger Britons will become "increasingly angry" if money is not better distributed.

"We've got a very serious problem of ensuring there's a fair deal across the generations," Willetts told the broadcaster. "Older people are worried about a properly funded healthcare system, people in middle age still haven't been able to buy their own home, and, for younger people, their pay is no better than it was 10 or 15 years ago. So, the different generations in the UK all face different pressures."

The study, which took two years to complete, is also calling on the government to scrap council tax, which is collected by local governments, and replace it with a new property tax that targets wealthier homeowners.

And it would like the government to collect more taxes from the over-65s, who currently do not pay the income-based tax used to fund social security provisions that is known as national insurance. The Bloomberg news agency said those extra contributions could be worth 2.3 billion pounds to the state-funded National Health Service.

Willets said the payment to people turning 25, which the Sun newspaper said could cost 7 billion pounds, would be funded by a revamped, tougher version of inheritance tax and would be used by young people to buy a home, start a business, or improve their education or skill sets.