Search icon

News

18th Jun 2018

Study finds that young workers in Dublin go without food so they can make rent

Olivia Hayes

Well, this is quite awful.

Adulting can be hard sometimes. Especially when you have to make rent.

It can feel like a never-ending cycle of getting paid, and it going straight out of your bank account and into your landlord’s. Sadness.

However, it’s gotten to such bad levels recently that a new study has found that some young Irish workers are going without food in order to pay rent.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions survey was carried out on 1,500 members under the age of 34.

It found that half of workers under the age of 34 are going without essentials like food, heating and transport just so they can make rent.

A further 10 percent said that they spend more than half their wages on rent, while 74 percent said they have little or no confidence in buying a house of their own in the future.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ Dr Laura Bambrick said that the majority of the people surveyed are fully employed and have no children.

“Lives are being damaged and destroyed and a whole generation of young workers are now feeling alarming levels of frustration, insecurity and despondency with their housing situation. We are failing badly our young people,” she said.

Topics:

housing,rent,work