Generational battle lines harden over pensions

Thinktank warns that older workers are not bearing their share of the pensions burden

If the personal finances of every household could be ranked, the period following the 2008 financial crisis puts the baby boomer on top. There is a counterpoint to this, say campaigners for older savers, which is the level of interest rates over the period. Surely a decade of ultra-low rates favours borrowers and most of them are young.

Likewise, final salary pension schemes, dominated as they are by the older generation, have struggled to bring down their deficits as low interest rates squeezed the return on assets.

A deficit occurs when a salary-related pension scheme doesn't have enough assets to pay for all its future possible liabilities - ie, payouts to workers when they retire.

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