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Looking for experts on State Pension and the welfare budget

Journalist: Hodan Sultan, The Times and The Sunday Times

ended 25. August 2026

I am writing a story about half of Britain's benefit bill going to pensioners and the misconceptions about the State Pensions and welfare spending on older generations. 

Looking for an expert to speak about how more than half of the social security budget is now spent on pensioners yet widespread misconceptions are masking the financial burden on younger taxpayers. 

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Editor
Iain Thompson
Director at Evolve Finance
The true misconception masking the state pension debate is the severe generational wealth imbalance it strains.

Younger taxpayers are funding an expanding welfare bill for a demographic that holds the vast majority of the UK’s unencumbered property wealth. While over half of the social security budget treats the State Pension as an untouchable entitlement, the younger workforce paying for it is completely locked out of the housing market by 5.6% mortgage rates and a chronic lack of supply.

We regularly see first-time buyers unable to pass affordability stress tests, while older generations sit on substantial, tax-free housing equity alongside guaranteed state backstops. This isn't just a welfare budget issue; it’s a systemic transfer of wealth from a housing-starved generation to an asset-rich one. Until policy links retirement spending to holistic asset wealth, younger taxpayers will continue to bear an unfair, unsustainable burden.