The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Money
Who you shouldho ould vote for, accordingo ording to your age
Your age will largely determine how each party’s plans will affect you. Marianna Hunt runs through what they offer to each generation
The battle lines of the last general election were drawn by voters’ ages. About half of those over 60 voted Conservative in 2017, while almost the same proportion of under-29s voted for Labour, according to polling agency YouGov. This year many of the parties have made big promises, hoping to garner support from specific groups. Telegraph Money takes a look at what has been pledged for each age bracket.
AGE 18 TO 29
Under a Labour government tuition fees would be scrapped. The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have made no such promises, although the former party has matched Labour’s pledge to bring back maintenance grants for the poorest students. The Tories have said they would look at the interest rates on loans.
One commitment Jeremy Corbyn has not made is to cancel the debts owed by current graduates; this is one of the Green Party’s pledges.
Twentysomethings are likely to be living in rented accommodation. Both Labour and the Lib Dems plan to introduce rent controls, with rises capped at the rate of inflation, and improve licensing rules to crack down on rogue landlords.
Mr Corbyn and Boris Johnson have said they will end “no-fault” evictions that allow landlords to get rid of tenants without giving a reason. The Tories and Lib Dems have also made attempts to tackle high deposits. The former f would ld introduce i t d a “lifetime “lifetiftime deposit” to spare renters from m having ha aving to stump up every time they mov move; ve; the latter would offer government-backed nt-backedb loans to cover the deposits of all firsttime renters under 30.
Yet David Smith of the Residential Landlords Association said tougher rules and rent controls risked forcing landlords to sell up, choking supply and reducing options for renters.
AGE 30 TO 39
Many in their early 30s will be thinking about settling down, buying a home and starting a family. For this group Mr Johnson is offering a discount of up to 30pc to first-time buyers who buy a home in n their local area. Those e who would not be able to afford a home otherwise ise will be given priority. The Tories also plan to develop new long-term fixed-rate mortgages, which are intended to bring down deposit requirements.
Mr Corbyn has said he will make developers sell homes at a discount of up to 50pc to people the local ocal council considers “key workers”. rkers”. Labour expects to deliver at t least 50,000 discounted homes over the next five years, compared with the Conservatives’ commitment of 29,000.
Young parents would benefit most under a Lib Dem government. The party would bring down the age at which childcare funding starts from three to two, giving working parents five extra free hours a week and increasing to 48 the number of weeks each year for which these hours are available. It would also increase statutory paternity pay.
For two working parents requiring 50 hours of childcare a week, this would save them £20,673 over the preschool years, according to Royal London, the insurer.
Labour has promised to boost paid maternity and paternity leave and extend the current 30-hours-perweek offering of free childcare to two-year-olds.
The Conservatives had previously said they would increase the number of weeks per year for which parents can access funded childcare hours, but this was not mentioned in the manifesto.
AGE 40 TO 49
Despite its limited promises ises to younger parents, the Tory party has more to offer those with older children. It would spend £1bn on providing childcare within schools during after-school hours and holiday periods.
However, this – its only giveaway to parents – is dwarfed by commitments from Labour and the Lib Dems of £5.5bn and nd £14bn respectively. Both oth plan to scrap the benefit cap and the two-child limit introduced by the Tories.
Yet the cost of the spending increases under Labour or the Lib Dems is likely to fall heavily on the shoulders of taxpayers. Higher earners, many of whom fall into this age bracket, will be hit particularly hard, said Xiaowei Xu of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
“Those who earn £80,000 and above will be caught by Labour’s introduction of an additional-rate tax of 45pc for this group,” she said. Mr Corbyn would also introduce a new “super-rich” rate of 50pc for people who earn more than £125,000 a year.
The Lib Dem proposals would leave basic-rate taxpayers paying 21pc, higher-rate taxpayers 41pc and additional-rate earners 46pc. A worker on £50,000 a year would be taxed £7,875, or £375 more than currently.
AGE 50 TO 59
On top of the concerns of those in their 40s, fiftysomethings will have planning for retirement among their top priorities.
Labour has said it will freeze the state statette pension i age at t66 66; under d th the Tories Toriie and Lib Dems it would continue to riis rise and those born after March 6 19 1961 would not receive their state pension pe until they reached 67. All parties, however, have said they will step in to tackle the NHS pensions crisis, which has left many senior doctors having to turn down overtime to avoid punitive tax bills. Fiftysomethings are also more likely than younger generations to own a second prop property, often run as a buyto-let. Pl Pledges to end “no-fault” evicti evictions from Labour and the Tor Tories will make life more di difficult for landlords who w want to get rid of problem te tenants. Buy-to-let owners would w also be likely to suffer su under Labour and Lib Li Dem rent caps and the Lib Dems’ proposal to r raise council tax by up to 500pc 50 for properties bough bought as second homes.
AGE 60T60TO 69
If elected, both Labour and the Lib Dems will compensate the women born in the Fifties who started to receive their state pension years later than they expected after their state pension age was raised in 2010. Labour has estimated the cost of doing so to be £58bn.
All of the parties have pledged to protect the “triple lock”, meaning that for the next four years the state pension will continue to rise by the highest of inflation, 2.5pc or the average increase in earnings.
Steven Cameron of Aegon, the pensions firm, said the manifestos showed that winning the “grey vote” was important to all parties.
“They are in broad agreement on keeping free bus passes and the winter fuel allowance and in their desire to reverse the BBC’s decision to means-test free TV licences for the over-75s,” he said.
Paying for these pensioner benefits will most likely be their children and grandchildren. Tom Selby of AJ Bell, the investment firm, said that, as taxpayers bore the cost of state pensions, maintaining the state pension age risked adding an extra burden to the working population. “Voters V need to remember that regardless regardles of what has been promised promis in this election, the cost of freezing the th state pension age will w eventually land somewhere,” he said.
AGE 70 AND ABOVE
It is when it comes to t social care, Mr Cameron Ca said, that the three thre parties diverge. The Th Conservatives have provided provide scant details aside from the pro promise that no one who needs care will have to sell their home to pay for it.
Under the Lib Dems, a penny-inthe-pound increase in income tax would be used to help fund social care, while Labour has pledged free care for the over-65s as part of the NHS-style National Care Service it will create and a £100,000 cap on personal contributions to other costs. “The best solution might involve a combination of all these things,” Mr Cameron said.
The total boost to social care funding would be £10.8bn under Labour, £7bn under the Lib Dems and £1bn a year from the Tories. Those who hope to pass their wealth on to their families may be concerned by Labour’s plans to scrap the family home allowance, which allows someone to pass on £175,000 of property wealth to direct descendants tax-free – £350,000 for married couples or civil partners. Abolishing it could cost families £140,000 in inheritance tax.
Rachael Griffin of Quilter, the wealth manager, warned that scrapping the allowance would affect older generations who wanted to help their children and grandchildren and would stem the flow of wealth between the generations.