A senior Labour minister has delivered a strikingly frank verdict on the challenges facing young Britons, bluntly stating that life is "s**t" for a generation caught between soaring housing costs and the financial burden of raising a family.
Minister's Candid X Post Highlights 'Impossible' Choices
Josh Simons, the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office and co-founder of the Labour Growth Group, made the comments in a post on X on Friday, 5 December 2025. He was reacting to a news story detailing the immense costs associated with housing and parenthood.
Simons asserted that for well-educated individuals aged between 20 and 40, it has become "IMPOSSIBLE" to simultaneously save enough to buy a home and afford the expenses of having children. He linked to a report in The Times which suggested that raising a child can cost parents close to £250,000 in the first 18 years.
Further analysis from the investment platform MoneyFarm indicated that parents spend approximately £65,016 on their children between the ages of 15 and 18 alone. Simons, who is an MP and holds a PhD, said he "can vouch" for these financial difficulties and labelled the UK's declining birth rate a "BIG problem" requiring urgent attention.
Record Low Fertility and a Tax Squeeze on the Young
Official figures underscore the scale of the issue. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows the UK's fertility rate fell to a record low in 2024, with women expected to have an average of 1.41 children. This was a slight drop from 1.42 in 2023, with the most significant decline seen among women aged 25 to 29.
Compounding the problem, analysis by City AM suggests decisions made by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the Budget will squeeze the incomes of young professionals over the next five years. It projects that a graduate earning 50% above the median wage for their age, who turned 30 in 2020, will pay around half as much in combined tax and student loan repayments as an equivalent graduate turning 30 in 2030.
This is largely due to the continued freeze on income tax thresholds until 2031, which is pulling millions into higher tax brackets. Separate data highlighted by The Economist reveals stark generational disparities, showing a person with a master's degree on a £30,000 salary faces a marginal tax rate of 43%, while someone over 66 in the same job pays just 20%.
Broader Economic Pressures on Graduates
The challenges extend beyond taxation. Data from Indeed and other job platforms indicates that graduate hiring is weakening at a faster rate than the broader UK economy, adding pressure on those entering the job market.
Economists have frequently pointed to Labour's policy decisions as contributing factors. These include significant increases to the national living wage and a £25bn rise in employers' National Insurance contributions, a measure often criticised as an effective employment tax that can dampen hiring.
The confluence of high personal debt, a strained housing market, rising living costs, and a complex tax landscape paints a difficult picture for young adults, a reality now openly acknowledged at the highest levels of government.
