ARE OUR KIDS REALLY WORSE OFF THAN WE WERE?

With 20% of 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK living in poverty, it seems financial security is a pipe dream...

- ASHLEIGH PAGE

Stay in school, study well, go to university, work hard and you’ll have a good life. This is the formula that many have been working from for generations – but are we selling our kids a lie?

In the past decade alone, university fees have risen by 200%, from up to £3,000 a year in 2011 to up to £9,250 in 2023. Average salaries hover around £30,316 for 22- to 29-year-olds, but the average house price has rocketed to £288,000, making it almost impossible for the next generation to even think about getting on the property ladder without help from the bank of Mum and Dad.

This year, in May to July, there were 526,000 young people – aged 16-24 – unemployed, an increase of 58,000 from the previous quarter. And a record number of young people relied on food banks just to eat. With post-pandemic employment struggles, the cost-of-living crisis and soaring energy bills, it seems it’s harder than ever for our kids to succeed and achieve financial security. Woman’s Own speaks to two mums who expected better for their kids. 

‘My kids have no hope of a mortgage’

Jacqui Deevoy, 61, lives in London. Back in the 80s, when I was 19 and renting a flat with my boyfriend, I had no thoughts about buying a property. Having grown up in a council house, purchasing a home had never really been on my radar. It was only when my boyfriend suggested it that I started to look into it.