Young people increasingly isolated due to cost of living crisis
An exclusive Sky News/Ipsos poll has found that young people are feeling increasingly lonely – with the cost of living crisis leading many to take on extra work, move in with their parents and cut back on socialising.
The poll, conducted in December, found 37% of 18 to 24-year-olds felt lonelier this winter than they did a year earlier.
England’s last remaining COVID regulations were lifted nearly a year ago, but the cost of living crisis means young people are struggling to take advantage of their new freedoms.
The effects of inflation mean almost half of those aged 16 to 25 fear they will never earn enough to start a family, a report found, while other research has found young people are likely to be “cautiously hopeful” but “struggling” in 2023.
But many young people are having to work more than one job to make ends meet.
Fizah, 22, a student at a university in Manchester, feels like she has no choice but to take up two jobs alongside her studies.
“It’s just so I can pay for the essentials of my rent, food and travel,” she says.
The extra work leaves little time for socialising.
Fizah, 22, says rising prices have led her to take on two jobs alongside her studies
She said: “You’re taking yourself away from your social group, your family and friends, which mentally detaches you a lot.”
Fizah isn’t alone.
Some 36% of young people surveyed said that they have less free time than they did a year ago, compared with just 24% of the public as a whole.
Ipsos surveyed 2,235 British adults, including 400 people aged 18 to 24, between the 7 and 9 of December.
It found that 45% of young people had taken on more hours at work since January 2022 due to rising prices, while 21% said they had taken on a second job as a result of the spending squeeze.
And in a bid to avoid rising rents and energy bills, nearly 23% have moved in with family.
‘We’ve been rationing the heating’
Even for those living with their parents to reduce costs, the stress and social isolation caused by rising prices can be significant.
Tasnia, 20, who lives with her mum in Tower Hamlets, says that the cost of living crisis has exacerbated her depression and made it harder to find a job.
“There are times where I’m going into overdraft simply to get to [job interviews],” she says.
Rising bills mean Tasnia Kazi, 20, and her mother are struggling to set aside £50 for groceries each month
The main financial pressure comes from energy bills.
She said: “We’ve been rationing the heating a lot lately … We can only use it three times a day.”
Nearly two in five young people surveyed told Sky News that they had found it difficult or very difficult to pay their energy bills over the last three months.
The poll also found that young people were more than twice as likely to report missing energy bill payments as the general public, while 18% said they had fallen behind on housing payments.
Others have staved off falling behind on bills in ways that may be difficult to sustain.
While 27% said that they had used savings to pay energy bills in the past three months, 19% have had to borrow money.
Young people are less likely to have savings to fall back on than other age groups. The latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows that, between 2018 and 2020, 34% of people aged 16 to 34 had more debt than savings – compared with just 11% of over-55s.
After paying their bills, Tasnia and her mum are struggling to budget £50 for a month’s groceries.
“It’s taken a massive toll on my mental health,” Tasnia said. “It’s inevitable that even considering going to a food bank might make you feel like a burden or a charity case. It’s really rough.”
Tasnia has also cut back on social gatherings because she “just can’t afford it”.
“It feels really isolating,” she says.
Jem Osborne, 25, says the cost-of-living crisis has left her feeling isolated
‘We need help’
The cost of living crisis has made it difficult for Jem, 26, to move out of her parents’ home.
“My social life is gone,” she says. “I can’t invite friends or partners around.”
Jem says it feels like young people have been “forgotten about” by the government.
She added: “We need help, we need support.”
In the Sky News survey, 22% of young people said that the UK’s political system works for people like them – with just 18% saying that it works for people on low incomes.
By contrast, the majority of young people surveyed said that the system works well for high earners and large businesses.
“Young people have been given little to no support in the last few years,” says Jem.
“We can’t do the jobs we’re qualified for, we can’t do the jobs we want to do.
“And then by our mid-20s, we feel like failures having to stay at home or stay in jobs we don’t actually like – all because the government doesn’t want to know that we are desperate for help.”
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
Changes to how death certificates are issued in England and Wales have made the grieving process more “stressful”, according to bereaved families.
Anne Short died on New Year’s Eve, only a few months after she was diagnosed with cancer.
Her son Elliot, 30, from Newport, South Wales, says the grieving process was made harder after having to wait eight weeks to hold her funeral.
“Quite frankly, it’s ridiculous, when you’re already going through all this pain and suffering as a family,” he told Sky News.
“You can’t move on, you can’t do anything, you can’t arrange anything, you can’t feel that they’re at peace, you can’t put yourself at peace, because of a process that’s been put in that nobody seems to know anything about at the moment.”
That process has been introduced by the government to address “concerns” about how causes of death were previously scrutinised, following high-profile criminal cases such as those of Harold Shipman and Lucy Letby.
Up until last September, causes of death could be signed off by a GP, but now they have to be independently scrutinised by a medical examiner, before a death certificate can be issued.
Anne Short
‘I felt helpless’
Mr Short said he was ringing “twice a day” for a progress update, but that it was “going through too many sets of hands”.
Until the death certificate was issued, Ms Short’s body could not be released into the care of the funeral director.
“The main stress for me was knowing that she was up there [at the hospital] and I couldn’t move her, so I felt helpless, powerless,” he said.
“I felt like I’d let her down in a lot of ways. I know now, looking back, that there’s nothing that we could have done, but at the time it was adding a lot of stress. I just wanted her out of there.”
Elliot Short had to wait eight weeks to hold his mother’s funeral
‘Something has to be done’
Mr Short fears there’s a risk the new process might defeat its purpose.
“There’s other people that I know that have lost since, where it’s been in a care home or something like that, where they haven’t been happy with the care they’ve had, but they haven’t raised that because you’re in this bubble of grief and you just want to get it done,” he said.
“Something has to be done about that because I think it just drags on the grief and there’s obviously a danger then of it being against the reasons why they’re trying to do it.”
Arrangements after the death of his father less than two years ago was a “much easier process”, according to Mr Short.
“I lost my father as well 15 months before, so we went through the process prior to this coming in and we had the death certificate, he died at home, but we had it within three days,” he added.
Elliot Short
‘State of limbo’
James Tovey is the sixth generation of his family running Tovey Bros, a funeral director in Newport.
He told Sky News that the delays were having a “huge impact” on the business and that the families they serve were being “left in a state of limbo” for weeks after their bereavement.
“I would say that most funerals will take place perhaps two to four weeks after the person’s passed away, whereas now it’s much more like four to six weeks, so it is quite a significant difference,” he said.
“It’s one thing on top of an already distressing time for them and we’re frustrated and upset for [the families] as much as anybody else and it’s just annoying that we can’t do anything about it.”
James Tovey
Mr Tovey said that the reform was “very useful” and he remained supportive of it.
“It’s just the delays. I’m sure they can do something about that over time, but it’s just waiting for that to happen, and I wish that could be addressed sooner rather than later,” he added.
“It does put pressure on other people, it’s not just ourselves, it’s pressure on the hospitals, on crematoria, on the registrar service and everyone else involved in our profession.
“But of course all of us we’re there to serve the families, and we’re just upset for them and wish we could do more to help.”
The organisation representing funeral directors has called for “urgent action”
The National Association of Funeral Directors said some areas of England and Wales are experiencing much shorter delays than others, but has called for “urgent action”.
Rachel Bradburne, its director of external affairs, said the system was “introduced for all the right reasons” but that it was “not working as well as we need it to”.
“Funeral directors are relaying stories of delays, frustration, and bottlenecks on a daily basis, and urgent action is required to review and recalibrate the new system,” she added.
‘Unintended consequences’
Dr Roger Greene is the deputy chief executive of bereavement charity AtALoss.
He told Sky News that the delays were “one of the unintended consequences of what’s a well-intended reform of a system”.
“What has actually happened is that the number of deaths now requiring independent scrutiny has trebled,” he said.
“So in England and Wales in 2023, the last full year of data, there were nearly 200,000 deaths reported to a coroner, whereas there were 600,000 deaths.
“Now, what is the change in the process is that all deaths now need to be reported for independent scrutiny.”
Dr Roger Greene
Dr Greene said there may be ways the system could be “tweaked a little bit”, such as giving medical examiners the ability to issue an interim death certificate.
“We believe that people can process grief well if they’re given the opportunity and they’ve got a proper understanding,” he added.
“But the systems that we have in the country need to be able to work as well with that diversity of faith and culture.”
‘Vital improvements’
Jason Shannon, lead medical examiner for Wales, told Sky News he recognised “the importance of a seamless, accurate and timely death certification process”.
“Medical examiners are one part of the wider death certification process and were introduced to give additional independent safeguards as well as to give bereaved people a voice, which they hadn’t had before,” he added.
“Medical examiners have no role in determining where the body of a family’s relative is cared for and except in a minority of deaths where a coroner needs to be involved, that decision should be one that a family is fully empowered to make in a way that is best for them.”
A Welsh government spokesperson said they “would like to apologise to any families who have experienced delays in receiving death certificates”.
The government said it was working with the lead medical examiner and the NHS in Wales “to understand where the delays are” and how to provide bereaved families with “additional support”.
Read more from Sky News:
Families feel impact of spiralling funeral costs
Calls for funeral sector to be regulated
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it recognised there were “some regional variations in how long it takes to register a death”.
They added that the changes to the death certification process “support vital improvements to patient safety and aim to provide comfort and clarity to the bereaved”.
Social media influencers are fuelling a rise in misogyny and sexism in the UK’s classrooms, according to teachers.
More than 5,800 teachers were polled as part of the survey by the NASUWT teaching union, and nearly three in five (59%) of teachers said they believe social media use has contributed to a deterioration in pupils’ behaviour.
The findings have been published during the union’s annual conference, which is taking place in Liverpool this weekend.
One motion that is set to be debated at the conference calls on the union’s executive to work with teachers “to assess the risk that far-right and populist movements pose to young people”.
Andrew Tate was referenced by a number of teachers who took part in the survey, who said he had negative influence on male pupils.
One teacher said she’d had 10-year-old boys “refuse to speak to [her]…because [she is] a woman”.
Another teacher said “the Andrew Tate phenomena had a huge impact on how [pupils at an all-boys school] interacted with females and males they did not see as ‘masculine'”.
While another respondent to the survey said their school had experienced some incidents of “derogatory language towards female staff…as a direct result of Andrew Tate videos”.
Last month, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hosted a discussion in Downing Street on how to prevent young boys from being dragged into a “whirlpool of hatred and misogyny”.
The talks were with the creators of Netflix drama Adolescence, which explored so-called incel culture.
Read more from Sky News:
Former Rochdale footballer dies aged 36
Two Britons among four killed in cable car crash
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Starmer meets Adolescence creators
‘An urgent need for action’
Patrick Roach, the union’s general secretary, said “misogyny, racism and other forms of prejudice and hatred…are not a recent phenomenon”.
He said teachers “cannot be left alone to deal with these problems” and that a “multi-agency response” was needed.
“There is an urgent need for concerted action involving schools, colleges and other agencies to safeguard all children and young people from the dangerous influence of far-right populists and extremists,” Mr Roach added.
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈
A spokesperson for the Department for Education (DfE) said: “Education can be the antidote to hate, and the classroom should be a safe environment for sensitive topics to be discussed and where critical thinking is encouraged.
“That’s why we provide a range of resources to support teachers to navigate these challenging issues, and why our curriculum review will look at the skills children need to thrive in a fast-changing online world.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway