My 24-year-old has never had a job – the rejections have destroyed him

Celia Griver’s son, Nathan, is 24 and has been unemployed since leaving sixth form with three A-levels in 2020.

Nathan is one of a growing number of young people not in employment, education or training (Neet). A report published by the former health secretary, Alan Milburn, last week found that nearly one million young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK are Neets, and six in 10 Neets have never had a job, up from four in 10 in 2025.

“Nathan really wants to work, but has given up hope after countless rejections,” says Celia. “He has applied for hundreds and hundreds of jobs over the years. He’s really trying hard to find a job. My husband sits down with him every Friday morning to fill out job applications, and he completes more on his own during the rest of the week, but no matter what he tries, it’s impossible to find anything. The bar for even the most basic job is set so high.”

Nathan was diagnosed with autism and dyspraxia in 2020 at the start of the lockdown. However, accessing any support has been difficult, as he did not receive an EHCP, explains Celia.

“He still lives at home with us, and it’s an expense we hadn’t really anticipated still carrying at his age,” explains Celia. “Some of my friends are empty nesters, but I can’t anticipate being in a situation where that will happen to us. I can’t ever see Nathan being financially able to afford to move out.”

He receives a personal independence payment (PIP), a welfare benefit for people aged 16 and over who have a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability, as well as universal credit and contributes about £100 a month to household expenses.

“Financially, we have just got used to it, but it’s been a real strain for us all emotionally,” she adds. “You see your child’s confidence deteriorating when he’s getting rejection after rejection. I know older people are getting rejections too, but when you are in your forties or fifties, you have this reserve to draw on, past experiences of when you haven’t been rejected, when you have had job offers. Nathan has never had that.”

Nathan’s mental health has gradually deteriorated since the Covid lockdowns and has worsened due to his inability to find a job. “The best thing you can do for someone’s mental health is to give them a job. Nathan has never had a job and really struggles to find meaning or purpose to his life,” says Celia.

The Milburn report found that ill health is now a “primary driver of who becomes a Neet and who stays a Neet”. Disability rates among Neet young people have nearly doubled over the last 15 years, with mental health problems being the “principal driver”. The proportion of disabled young people citing mental health as their main health problem has nearly doubled from 2011 to 2025. The most commonly cited mental health conditions are anxiety and depression.

Nathan currently volunteers for one hour a week in a local Oxfam shop in Kent, and before that, volunteered at a dementia home during the lockdowns. “He’s always volunteered, I have always insisted on it, as otherwise he won’t have any references, experience or skills,” says Celia.

He also recently secured a short-term volunteer role in a London museum, cataloguing there one day a week. “He really loves it; Nathan has a really deep interest in history, and it’s really given him some purpose and a bit of structure to his week,” says Celia. “It was incredibly competitive: he had to complete an application form, send a video of himself answering a question, attend a group event and an in-person interview, and then complete two inductions. He thought they could still get rid of him at the induction stage – he just always presumes the worst. The fact that he got through has really helped his confidence, even though he has to fund all the travel himself.”

Celia worries that there is very little support for anyone diagnosed with autism when it comes to job seeking. “The only support we have managed to get is through autism charities, and we had to work really hard to get that,” she says.

Nathan is now participating in an online job-seeking course through the charity Ambitious about Autism, which offers internships for young people with autism and helps to find them employment. He has also secured funding for one-on-one job coaching with the help of AS Mentoring, which provides coaching and mentoring for neurodivergent adults.

Celia believes the Milburn report is a step in the right direction, but worries that, for young people like Nathan, who will soon be 25, it has come too late.

“I am so pleased that this issue is now being tackled, but for people like my son, who are not going to be in that Neet 18 to 24 category very soon, it has come too late. They have been in this situation since Covid and are some of the worst affected cases – they have been unemployed for nearly six years.”

“Not only has he missed out on any support or job schemes due to Covid, but he is also now coming to the end of being classed as a ‘youth’ and so is consigned to being unemployed for the foreseeable future”.