If parents are wealthy the chances are that their children will also end up in a comfortable financial position, further increasing inequality of opportunity in the Netherlands, the government’s macro-economic forecasting agency CPB has warned.

The reverse is also true, the CPB said, with children from poorer families facing  more problems to get ahead.

The think tank compared the financial positions of parents and children between 1992 and 2022.

Children whose parents belong to the richest 1% of the population will themselves belong to the wealthiest 20% by the time they are 40, the CPB found.

A possible reason for this, the CPB said, is that rich parents are more inclined to support their children in ways that poorer people can’t. This could involve paying for extra tuition and therefore increasing their educational advantage, and gifting them money at certain times in their lives.

The CPB said that to combat the growing inequality, schools could make room for classes in entrepreneurship and offer free extra tuition, and the government should increase tax on gifts.