Young adults in Britain face ‘cost of living crisis’: Study

Britain’s young adults are facing a “cost of living crisis” as they struggle to pay bills while trying to save for the future, a study showed Wednesday (Oct 13).

Hard hit by the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, almost half of 18-30 year olds in Britain have “low financial resilience”, cross-party think tank Demos concluded in a report carried out the Yorkshire Building Society, a UK lender.

The report, based on a June survey of 2,000 adults, urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government to tackle “what appears to be a cost of living crisis for young people”.

Findings showed that young adults in the UK “are significantly more likely to have fallen behind on domestic bills and credit card repayments in the last six months” compared to those aged over 51.

Young adults are also spending more than twice as much as older people on essential items, such as rent.

The report’s co-author Ben Glover of Demos said that despite young adults being “accused of spending too much money on coffees and avocados and not being financially prudent”, the findings showed they were in fact “trying to look after their finances and save for the future – more so than any other age group”.

Mike Regnier, chief executive of Yorkshire Building Society, noted that even before the pandemic, many young adults faced a difficult financial situation.

“The impact of Covid-19 on the economy has only exacerbated this.”