Today, more and more "twenty somethings" are living with their parents, forced back home by low graduate wages, crippling student debts and soaring house prices. LUCY STEPHENS reports.

Welcome to the 'kidults' generation.

According to newly-released Government figures, nearly 60 per cent of young men aged between 20 and 24 are now living with their parents.

The trend is steadily rising. In 1991, only 50 per cent of men in the same age group were living at home.

The figures for women are lower, but also on the rise. Nearly 40 per cent of 20 to 24-year-old women are still not independent of their parents - a rise of seven per cent since 1991.

A housing expert says that a study could soon be carried out in York to assess the scale of the scale of the situation here.

"It's quite a recent phenomenon," says Dr Julie Rugg, a senior research fellow at York University's Centre for Housing Policy.

"Some students are returning home from university and staying at home with low rental costs, using the time to pay off debts.

"Wages for graduates are low - people expect to be on about £13,000. That's just too low for them to be able to pay off the debt and acquire a property anywhere.

"When does a person become an adult? For me, a 25-year-old having to live at home with their parents is not quite appropriate.

"It's one of the things we are considering doing some work on."

Long-term stay-at-home children also put a significant financial burden on parents, according to a recent MORI poll conducted for York's Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

A third of homeowners with adult children surveyed said their offspring still lived at home. More than half who expected their children to become home-owners were prepared to part with sums of money in the region of £17,000 to help them buy a house.

Richard Best, director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, says: "Parents who are owner-occupiers are coming to terms with the fact that high house prices are not necessarily good news after all.

"The value of their own property may have risen, but their children will find it increasingly difficult to follow them up the home ownership ladder unless they are prepared to help them with a substantial gift or loan."

Peter Moody, partner of York property firm Hudson Moody, says: "You've got parents who've been in a house for a long time. They are releasing some equity to get their children on to the housing ladder."

But it is not just house prices which are prohibitively expensive for young people, says Simon Soumati, 28, a restaurant manager from South Bank in York.

"Rents in York are quite staggering," he says. "I'm living with a friend, and I'm struggling to find a place to rent.

"I lived in the centre of Nottingham for half of what it's going to cost me here."

"More and more young people are living at home."

LUCY STEPHENS asked people in York what they thought about the "kidults" phenomenon

Neil Whyler, 19, a York University student: "I'm from Leeds, and it's quite cheap living here as opposed to living in Leeds. But it does worry me that I might have to go back home and lose my independence. I'm going to try my best not to. It's quite expensive to buy a house."

Nick Askey, 36, from Stockton-on-the-Forest: "I had a brain haemorrhage 18 months ago - I had to move back in with my parents. I would dread to think what I would do if I had to get on the property ladder now - the boom has just escalated, it's gone beyond everybody's expectations. It's a strain on the parents who obviously feel they need to take you in, but it can put a lot of strain on the family."

Andy Roberts, 19, a student from Badger Hill, York: "After university I plan to live abroad. But if I had to come back to England I would have to live with my parents - it could be a problem. I think it's definitely a worry now lots of people are coming out of university with such a big debt. With house prices rising, I definitely wouldn't be able to live in York - all house prices here are shooting up."

Updated: 11:10 Monday, April 18, 2005