Rise in youth unemployment driving more to homelessness, UK charities say

The growing number of young people not in work or education is driving more into unstable housing or homelessness, charities have warned.A government-commissioned review into the crisis facing young people in the UK said there could be a 25% rise in young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) to 1.25 million by the early 2030s without intervention.Alan Milburn, its author, said the “instability of worklessness” was increasing the risk of young people ending up homeless and “deteriorating outcomes” for people who were already disadvantaged.Almost 124,000 young people were homeless or at risk of homelessness in the UK in 2024-25, a 6% increase on the previous year and the third consecutive year numbers had risen. In the north-west, where youth homelessness is highest, it rose by more than a third.The Big Issue said there had been a 60% increase in vendors aged 18 to 24 since 2022, up from 449 to 720.In the past two years, Josh, 23, has applied for hundreds of jobs while struggling to keep a roof over his head. “It might even be over a thousand,” he said.“I’d be applying for jobs for six hours straight in one night. Then getting maybe one reply and one interview every six months, just to get rejected at the last step. You feel like there’s something about you that is a problem. It can really affect your self-image.”Josh lives in supported housing run by Centrepoint, a youth homelessness charity. It has warned that as the number of Neets has surged, young people are being locked out of the private rental market, and into unstable housing.Lisa Doyle, the head of policy and public affairs at the charity, said: “There is a huge scarcity of work opportunities for young people at the moment. And for those who are having to support themselves, getting a job can really be what allows them to live and to get on.“If things go wrong, they don’t have anything to fall back on. It’s a grim situation for young people out there.”The youth unemployment rate is 14.7% in the UK, its highest level in more than a decade. Britain has the third-highest rate among wealthy European countries of 16- to 24-year-olds who are neither earning or learning.John Bird, a founder of The Big Issue and a crossbench peer, said young people were facing mounting cost of living pressures against a backdrop of declining employment opportunities.“But we must also acknowledge the role that growing poverty is playing in this crisis, and ensure that solutions are built with that in mind,” he said.Josh said he had started to struggle financially after losing his job in a bar. Family breakdown meant he had nowhere to live, forcing him on to the streets. As work dried up, the battle to find affordable housing got worse and his mental health deteriorated.“I was looking for anything, even jobs that were miles away. I guess if you’re beaten down enough, you’ll try anything,” he said.“I’d love my own space but it just feels out of reach without a proper job. And I don’t feel like I have permission to do things that I enjoy doing. I’m always waiting for the moment I’m going to have work.“The lack of money doesn’t just stop you from owning stuff, it also stops you from feeling whole. If you can’t go out and even afford the bus to go to where your friends are, what are you supposed to do?”He’s about to start a barista training course, which he hopes will lead to more stable work, and has long-term ambitions to become a scriptwriter.Doyle said: “Lots of the public discussion about this often seems to lay the blame at the feet of young people and that must be really, really frustrating. “Young people can’t create jobs. Our advisers are talking to lots of employers who are getting hundreds of applications for entry-level jobs and only one person’s going to get that.”Faye, 22, an aspiring photographer, spent her teenage years in the care system and said the struggle to find a stable income amid a jobs shortage, while also trying to find somewhere to live in a housing crisis felt impossible.After leaving college, she took on short-term jobs at a sweet shop and Costa Coffee, and then a paid work-experience placement at Pret, but the unstable nature of the work and pay led her to fall behind on her rent.“It was about £800 of debt and I really struggled to get a job after that to pay it off,” she said. “It’s frustrating because the government wants us to have jobs and there’s a whole narrative out there saying young people can’t be bothered to work.“But it’s the actual stress and struggle of trying to apply for a job, and not getting the job or there just not being enough of them or you don’t have the experience. But where do you get that experience, unless you start working from the age of 10?”Faye has been living in Centrepoint’s supported accommodation for nearly three years, and is looking for work while hoping to return to college to study photography after a previous course she was due to start got cancelled.She has spent more than a year on the waiting list for a social home despite being categorised as high priority because she is a care leaver. But she said even if young people did find a home, they still needed a job.“We are on the high-priority list for housing, but what about jobs?” she said. “What about employment? What about college courses for us to get the careers we want and the apprenticeships? How can we afford to pay rent without that?”