EVEN THOSE IN WORK STAY WITH PARENTS TO SAVE CASH
If you’re still living with your folks, you’re not the only one. Almost half of students who graduated since 2015 have not yet moved out and are still living at home with their parents, according to new statistics.
The research – by the National Union of Students (NUS) – is particularly newsworthy as this is the first cohort to have paid up to £9,000 tuition fees, raising fresh questions about the value of a degree and whether university is a smart investment for today’s young people. The report, Double Jeopardy, concludes that those who graduated in 2015 have paid far more for their education while receiving far less of a benefit from that education in the labour market than previous generations.
Six months after leaving university, 47% of the 2015 graduate cohort were living back at home with their parents or guardian to save money. Seven out of 10 said they were concerned about their student debt, and half thought their degree was not worth the fees they had paid.
Perhaps surprisingly, more detailed stats seemed to indicate that this is a problem of high debt and low pay, rather than unemployment – as the majority of those questioned were not jobless. Of those surveyed, 52% were in full-time work, with 13% working part-time and 2% self-employed. Just more than 8% said they were unemployed, while 17% were studying for a post-graduate qualification.
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Graduates are being squeezed by debt and low wages
Of those in work, six out of 10 were employed on permanent contracts; a quarter were employed on fixed-term contracts and 6% were on causal or zero-hours contracts. The report did not make clear how many were doing unpaid or low-paid internships. Sorana Vieru, NUS vice president for higher education, said:
“This research shows many graduates are without work, badly paid or in precarious and casualised employment, especially women. The majority are in debt, not just with student loan repayments, but they also owe money to banks, credit card companies and loan sharks.
“The graduates face a double jeopardy: they enter the world of work having paid far more for their education, with the debts hanging over them. Yet they receive far less benefit from this education in the labour market compared to previous generations, while living costs keep rising and the welfare safety net is shrinking.”
Doubtless some of the mainstream press will dismiss this phenomenon as a ‘boomerang’ generation of ‘kidults’ scrounging off their parents into their twenties. But at Graduate Fog we know that the truth is more complicated. As many of you have already told us, you hate being dependent on your parents – and long to get your adult life started with a decent job and place of your own. But for the time being, the maths just isn’t adding up…
*STILL LIVING AT HOME?
How is it going? What is your main reason for still living at home – and how long do you plan to do it for? Do you contribute financially? If your parents give you money, how do you feel about that? We’d love to hear about the reality behind these statistics, so please share your views below…
I graduated from my BA in 2010 and still live at home 🙁 for the first two years it was because I could only get part-time, minimum wage employment. The last four years I’ve been doing funded postgrad study, which I initially hoped would mean I and my partner could rent (he already has a flat but it’s too small for both of us), but letting agents let us down time and again – not returning our calls, showing us a house only for it to get snapped up before we could tell them we wanted it, saying we would be first in line for a viewing only for that to be a lie. I’m hoping that when/if I find employment (I’ve just completed my PhD), we can buy a place as I’ve saved so much money living at home and won’t have to deal with useless agents on an ongoing basis!
I’m really embarrassed to still be living at home. I feel like a “kidult”. A friend of mine recently moved into a flat with his girlfriend. He has a stable job in accounting — well as stable as jobs can be these days. His girlfriend is also in a professional job in publishing. They are renting somewhere together. In time they will be able to buy somewhere. It all sounds very adult doesn’t it?
In comparison I feel a bit like an overgrown child. I don’t know if I’ve developed a complex about it but I’ve noticed a few times in social situations being asked about my living arrangements when meeting someone for the first time. A bit like how people ask ‘And what is it you do?’. Why do they ask? Perhaps it is a shorthand to establish whether they are talking to real adult.
Unemployed. £3000 to my name which is no safety net at all really. My life is a joke. There comes a point where you look in the mirror and don’t like what is staring back at you.
@Kidult Thanks for being so honest – I know it’s not easy and i’m sure a LOT of Foggers reading will be in a similar position as you. Can I ask more about how the dynamic works at home, with your parents? Do you contribute towards rent, food etc? I’m inclined to think that contributing (either financially, or if not then through chores etc) helps to establish a distinction between your pre-graduating and post-graduating self in the home. Otherwise you can end up going back to feeling like ‘teen you’ which is demoralising for everyone. That’s why I’m interested to understand more about what grads mean when they say they are staying at home to ‘save money’. Do you think it’s more common for people to pay their parents rent (even if low) than nothing at all?
@Alice Sorry – for some reason I didn’t see your comment earlier! Thanks for sharing. That’s crazy how hard you’ve found it even to find a place to rent… But great news you’ve managed to save so much money by living at home for so long. Do you have lots of friends who’ve done the same thing as you? And did your folks let you stay rent-free? I’m really interested in the financial arrangements of graduates still living at home. Proper rents are so high that even if you pay a small amount plus contribution to bills, it’s still a big saving, right?
I do my own washing. I do my own ironing. I contribute in terms of household chores. I am contributing zilch financially though. I would do the moment I get something.
You get the people on here that blame everyone but themselves. I can only blame myself. I lost my job a couple of weeks ago in a call centre. I wasn’t a graduate job snob that felt they were “above” call centre work. I just couldn’t do the job. I couldn’t work the systems quick enough. Couldn’t multitask. It wasn’t a great job but one bringing in £300 a week which you miss when you don’t have it anymore.
So I am now typing this from my childhood bedroom. Waiting to hear back from something else at the minute. Constantly refreshing Gmail. Just hope everything works itself out.
The lower level of Housing Benefit – based on a room, which means anyone renting a flat under age 35 is at risk without savings – for childless single under 35s and the lower level of JSA for under 25s, and no obligation on the state in England to provide emergency accommodation to most childless adults at all will be a major factor here in even graduates in work feeling moving out is too risky or losing jobs and being forced to move in with relatives, as well as sky high rents.
So God knows what happens to childless under 30s who have no relatives who can or will save them. It is no exaggeration to say I could easily have ended up on the street by now without my family and access to credit – since Housing Benefit can be suspended for 2 months or more every time you leave or enter work, plenty of time to get evicted, especially as a lodger.
I was paying £100 a week in rent for a room on Harborne, SW Birmingham just over a year ago when I was last on the dole, out of combined JSA and Housing Benefit of £130.
So something like 70% of my income went on rent, and 40%+ on servicing debt – clearly unsustainable.
If I’d been under 25, my JSA would have been lower and around 100% of my income would have gone on rent.
Even in full time work the percentages are crazy for rooms let alone flats with bills abs council tax. 40-50% of the full time over 25 minimum wage in Birmingham, it could easily be 70-90% for a room in Zone 5 plus commuting by tube at peak times.
I’m very lucky that I’m renting a flat off family in Dudley in the Black Country now for below market rate – though even then bills and council tax add up.
I can’t see how, at age 29, I could ever have rented a one bedroom flat independently at market rate in Birmingham or the Black Country. I was hanging on in a rented attic room going in and out of agency work, and my job could still end at any moment with no warning even after a year.
Luckily I’ve never dealt with letting agents, only Spareroom – which isn’t quite as madly competitive in Birmingham as in London from what I hear.
@Kidult: £3000 is several thousand more than many graduates in a lot of commercial debt and could potentially be built on.
But yes even that would last 3 months or less if paying market rent and having much of a life 🙁
@Kidult: Plenty of people just aren’t suited to call centres, I know I wouldn’t be. Not would plenty of quite well off people.
And whilst there is some personally responsibility, the socio economic system, no full employment or proper safety net and the housing bubble aren’t your fault.
@Alex
Yeah call centre work wasn’t a great fit for me. Took it out of desperation. Lasted a month. Just embarrassed I couldn’t hack it. What use are grades if you can’t cope with a job like that.
I know it could be worse. It is just if I had say 20k in bank then I’d feel a lot calmer. You can ride out the worst of times with money. My £3k savings are not a safety net. The whole benefits situation is very worrying. As a single person under 35 I’d only ever get the shared accommodation rate for HB. Though that is moot in the sense that what landlord wants “DSS” anyway? I doubt the antidepressants I am on would make me “priority need” for homeless!
The housing situation in my area: £130 p/w for a 1 bedroom flat. Finding a long-term partner would be helpful as halving that would make renting easy. To buy a nice flat would be £135k which I’ll only ever have via inheritance.
My parents had a secure council tenancy, a below market rent and a hefty right-to-buy discount. Paid £40k now worth nearly 10x that. It is another world.
I spent 5 years living with my parents and only moved out when my husband and I were able to move in together and move north. I worked for most of that time but couldn’t afford to rent a small flat and even a room would have taken up about half of my salary (if I had had some friends to house share with I might have given it a go).
I love my family and we actually now really enjoy visiting each other but living with them into my twenties just felt unhealthy. I didn’t feel like a ‘proper adult’ and really resented that I was expected to work like one yet live like a teenager.
Since losing a job a couple of weeks ago I’ve been in a complete state of panic. I’ve had enough time to reflect. I am ill-suited to call centre work. I made a mistake applying. They clearly over recruit and then cut back but I can’t blame anyone else. What is done is done. But it was bringing in over £300 a week which I need to replace.
Another department in the same organisation has reached out to me. They said they thought I’d be a good candidate for another role. Applied. Now radio silence…
I’m keeping busy with voluntary work but there is no chance of it leading to paid work.
I live in suburban commuter territory. It is DEAD of a day. Everyone is in London. Normal people are going to after work drinks of a Friday night about now. Sat in a suburban library all day it hits you that life goes on for everyone who is employed and nobody cares that I am no longer part of that.
I’d genuinely take the night shift in ASDA at the minute just to keep the money flowing in but getting a “survival” job isn’t simple given a degree from a top 20 uni tends to imply I’m not in it for the long term.
Don’t know what posting on Graduate Fog achieves but I am just bored of this **** now. Just want something low stress where I can keep my head down and bank a paycheck every month.
Trapped and don’t see a way out really unless I can find the money for postgrad. Treading water in a minimum wage role would be utterly pointless.