{"id":481473,"date":"2025-10-07T23:35:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/481473\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T23:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:35:12","slug":"average-uk-worker-would-need-to-save-52-years-of-earnings-to-be-wealthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/481473\/","title":{"rendered":"Average UK worker would need to save 52 years of earnings to be wealthy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The average UK<\/a> worker would need to save their earnings for 52 years in order to move to the top of the wealth ladder<\/a>, new research suggests.<\/p>\n

It would take just over half a century of saving with no outgoings for the average Brit to raise \u00a31.3 million, the amount needed to move from the move from the middle to the top brackets of the nation\u2019s richest<\/a>, according to the Resolution Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The think tank\u2019s Before the fall report, which examines the scale and distribution of household wealth<\/a> across Britain , said intergenerational inequality had \u201cworsened\u201d between 2006-08 and 2020-22, warning of \u201centrenched wealth gaps\u201d that \u201creflect the growing importance of who your parents are, rather than how hard you work, in shaping lifetime living standards\u201d.<\/p>\n

Using data from the Office for National Statistics\u2019 Wealth and Assets Survey, analysts found that while Britain\u2019s stock of wealth continued to grow during the pandemic, reaching a new record high of 7.5 times GDP, wealth gaps between rich and poor families have grown \u201csharply\u201d.<\/p>\n

Molly Broome, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said wealth gaps between the richest and poorest in the country were \u201cdoubly concerning\u201d because of low rates of wealth mobility across the country.<\/p>\n

\"Workers Workers would have to save \u00a31.3m to move into the richest decile, the think tank said (Gareth Fuller\/PA Wire) <\/p>\n

\u201cWealth gaps in Britain are now so large that a typical full-time employee saving all their earnings across their entire working life would still not be able to reach the top of the wealth ladder,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese gaps are doubly concerning as wealth mobility in Britain is low \u2013 people that start life wealthy tend to stay wealthy, and vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Factors including existing wealth, age, and location also had a huge impact on how rich Britons are, according to analysts. Their research showed the wealth gap between people in their early 30s and people in their early 60s has more than doubled between 2006-08 and 2020-22 \u2013 from \u00a3135,000 to \u00a3310,000 (in real cash terms).<\/p>\n

Researchers added 53 per cent of household income growth since the early 2010s had come through \u201cpassive\u201d earnings such as rising house prices, rather than \u201cactive behaviour\u201d, which primarily benefitted the already-wealthy.<\/p>\n

Those in the South East were also found to have a median wealth of \u00a3290,000 – substantially higher than those in the North East, who had \u00a3110,000.<\/p>\n

Ms Broome blamed soaring house prices and changes in the value of pensions for growth in wealth gaps, adding it was external factors \u201crather than any active behaviour on the part of individuals, such as buying homes or acquiring new assets\u201d that widened the gulf.<\/p>\n

\"According According to the foundation, intergenerational inequality has worsened <\/p>\n

Some economists have suggested chancellor Rachel Reeves may introduce a wealth tax in a bid to plug a \u00a350bn hole at the next Budget, despite Labour\u2019s manifesto promise not to raise taxes.<\/p>\n

But Ms Broome warned any future wealth taxes introduced by the government could fall on pensioners or homeowners instead of being paid by the nation\u2019s richest.<\/p>\n

\u201cSoaring wealth and an acute need for more revenue has prompted fresh talk of wealth taxes ahead of the Budget next month,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut with property and pensions now representing 80 per cent of the growing bulk of household wealth, we need to be honest that higher wealth taxes are likely to fall on pensioners, Southern homeowners or their families, rather than just being paid by the super-rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

An HM Treasury spokesperson said: “The UK\u2019s income tax system is highly progressive, with an internationally high Personal Allowance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also taxing wealth by getting rid of the non-domicile status in the tax system, we put VAT on private school fees and we increased taxes on private jets.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The average UK worker would need to save their earnings for 52 years in order to move to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,1830,393,4884,1144,54037,712,16,15,1764,65989,94596],"class_list":{"0":"post-481473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-earnings","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-resolution-foundation","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-wales","19":"tag-wealth-gap","20":"tag-wealth-tax"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115335510433265674","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}