The postwar dream of doing better in life than your parents has faded, with the UK now a country where opportunities for upward social mobility and economic advancement are increasingly limited, research has claimed.
It contrasts with the golden age of social mobility enjoyed by the UK in the early years of the Queen’s reign when an expanding economy allowed a generation to take professional jobs and own their own homes.
But today, as the monarch celebrates her platinum jubilee, the social mobility prospects of disadvantaged young people are bleak, said the research.
“For generations growing up in the early 21st century, the dream of just doing better in life, let alone climbing the income ladder, is disappearing,” concluded the analysis by thinktank the Sutton Trust.
