Are the old robbing the young?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In her budget the Chancellor increased the state pension by 4.8 % in line with the government's triple lock formula. It was good news for pensioners but is it good news for the young? A constant background to spending and economic decisions for well over a decade now has been an argument about generational injustice. That the young are getting poorer. David Aaronovitch and guests look at the facts and ask whether the old are robbing the young and if so what should be done about it?
Guests: Bobby Duffy, Professor of Public Policy at King’s College, London Sophie Hale, Principal Economist, Resolution Foundation Xiaowei Xu, Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies Jane Falkingham Professor of Demography, Southampton University
Presenter: David Aaronovitch Producers: Caroline Bayley, Cordelia Hemming, Kirsteen Knight Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound Engineer: James Beard Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.7 | I'm increasing the basic and new state pension by 4.8%, an increase of £440 per year for the basic state pension, |
| 0:17.5 | and an increase of £575 per year for the new state pension in line with our commitment to the triple lock. |
| 0:25.5 | Good news in her budget from the Chancellor for pensioners. But is it good news for the young? |
| 0:31.8 | A constant background to spending in economic decisions for well over a decade now has been an argument about generational |
| 0:38.0 | injustice, that the young are getting poorer. And that argument continues to grow. So, |
| 0:45.4 | what are the facts here? Are we robbing young Peter to pay old Pauline? And if so, |
| 0:52.2 | what shall we do about it? Step into the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
| 0:59.6 | First, let's look at how the generations from the baby boomers onwards have fared economically. |
| 1:05.8 | I'm joined by Sophie Hale, whose principal economist at the Resolution Foundation Think Tank. |
| 1:12.3 | Sophie, can we start by you reminding us exactly who the baby boomers are? |
| 1:16.6 | And then tell us about how things were for them when they were young workers. |
| 1:21.5 | Yeah, so the baby boomers are the kind of post-war generation that were born between, |
| 1:26.2 | sort of, the mid-1940s and the mid-1960s. |
| 1:29.7 | They were a generation that entered the workforce and sort of progressed their careers |
| 1:35.2 | during a period of very fast income growth in the UK. |
| 1:39.4 | And so they saw really high rates of income progress. |
| 1:42.4 | They earned a lot more than their parents did. And they saw year on year kind of income progress. They were also entering retirement age at the kind of post global financial crisis period, which was a time when interest rates became really low. And we saw a lot of wealth gains in the UK. |
| 1:59.1 | Wealth as opposed to income. Yes, wealth, exactly. |
| 2:01.9 | And this was a time when they were very wealthy. |
| 2:03.7 | They were close to retirement. |
| 2:04.8 | That's when you have the highest levels of wealth. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.