A LACK of well-paid jobs and affordable homes is throwing young people into poverty, a damning report published today finds.

Young people aged 16 to 24 are four times more likely to be unemployed than the working-age population as a whole, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation study found.

And 400,000 more young people are living in poverty than a decade ago, according to the foundation’s annual state-of-the-nation report.

Foundation head Julia Unwin said: “The next generation is being condemned to a worse set of circumstances in which to live, work and raise a family.

“This year’s report reveals that a large proportion of young people are being locked out of the opportunities they need to build a secure future — a secure home, a job that pays the bills and the chance to get on in life.”

A government spokesman snarked: “Work is the best route out of poverty.”