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From Pocket Money to Power: Why Young People Need Real Earning Opportunities

Dec. 9, 2025

Co-Founders of MyPocketSkill sitting at the offices in London

How MyPocketSkill is helping teens build skills, confidence and financial independence

The cost-of-living crisis is still hitting families hard, with energy prices, unemployment and inflation all rising again. While politicians scramble for solutions, Britain's abundant and untapped economic asset is ignored: young people who want to work.

The Problem: Young People Are Overlooked

In the UK’s cultural imagination, young people are unfairly viewed as burdens to society. In 2024, UK Youth found that 9 in 10 young people experienced negative treatment in the workplace due to their age. Young people are rarely seen as being able to make a positive economic contribution until they leave full-time education, which means their skills are wasted and their potential is squandered.

But, paradoxically, many skills are still in short supply. While 80% of small businesses desperately hunt for skilled workers, thousands of capable Gen Z and Gen A candidates are locked out of opportunities. These young people have exactly what employers claim to need: digital skills, creative thinking, and fresh perspectives. Yet businesses continue their tired hiring practices, demanding “experience” while refusing to provide it. The skills gap isn't a shortage problem — it's a stubborn refusal to recognise and develop the talent that's already here. Companies complain about empty pipelines while ignoring the queue of qualified young people standing right outside their doors. Stop blaming young workers for a problem employers created.

It’s not a talent shortage — it’s a lack of trust and opportunity.

Why This Matters for Financial Education

This blind spot doesn’t just waste talent; it has long-term economic consequences. When young people are excluded from earning, they are also excluded from the lived experiences that make financial education stick. Financial lessons remain abstract without real earnings; no wonder 8 in 10 young people don't budget — how can they, when the system keeps them locked out of earning in the first place? Financial literacy is a muscle, and earning money is the gym that hones it.

Poor exposure to earning opportunities leads to poor financial education, ultimately translating into poor economic outcomes. People with low financial literacy are significantly less likely to hold savings, and according to Aberdeen, those who do typically have £5,500 less in savings than their financially literate peers. The cycle will continue unless young people are given meaningful opportunities to earn while they learn.

MyPocketSkill: Helping Teens Earn, Learn and Save

Teenagers are too often written off as distractions, dependents, or worse – a problem to be managed until they “grow up.” Yet every day, young people are tutoring, designing, coding, creating and hustling in ways that make a real difference. The issue isn’t ability – it’s a society that refuses to take them seriously.

That’s beginning to change. Platforms like MyPocketSkill are handing power back to young people by cutting out the gatekeepers and giving them direct access to paid opportunities.

A 13-year-old can tutor,
A 17-year-old can design a website
And a 19-year-old can manage a social media campaign for local businesses.

They’re doing it not in some theoretical future, but right now.

The rebellion here isn’t noisy, but decisive: young people are taking control of their own economic futures. At a recent MyPocketSkill community day, Tai, a 17-year-old game designer was asking about HMRC tax returns and cash vs fixed ISAs – not just out of curiosity, but because he was already earning money and making financial decisions. Another young photographer, Ella, explained how the portfolio she built through projects on MyPocketSkill helped her win a degree apprenticeship: “It’s given me experience that actually counts, not just filler for a CV.”

What this reveals is a quiet but powerful shift. Teenagers aren’t waiting for permission to contribute. They’re carving out their own space in the economy and forcing employers, families, and institutions to take notice. MyPocketSkill is just one arena where that shift is happening – proof that power is already moving into younger hands.

What this shows is simple: when trusted with responsibility, young people don’t just “cope,” they thrive. MyPocketSkill proves the point – not by treating teenagers as passive learners, but by treating them as contributors whose work has immediate value. And in doing so, it chips away at the damaging myth that young people can’t meaningfully shape the economy.

Prevention Is Better Than Cure

We often repeat “prevention is better than cure” when talking about the NHS, but it also applies to money. Treating preventable diseases with medicine is costly to the economy at large, and so is bailing out individuals with poor financial habits. We don't wait until someone needs open-heart surgery to tell them to exercise. So why wait until young people are drowning in debt to teach them about money? It is much cheaper for society to teach good financial habits early than to fix problems like credit card debt later.

Credit card debt in the UK recently passed £74 billion, above pre-pandemic levels. Building strong money habits early — earning, budgeting, saving — helps prevent debt problems later in life.

By enabling Gen Z and Gen A to earn, learn, and save simultaneously, we can raise a generation that regularly contributes to savings accounts and pensions. There's an opportunity to instil money-conscious habits in young people who will benefit from these practices thirty to forty years from now.

We need to instil these healthy habits in young people early in their careers to lay the foundations for financial well-being. This improves individual livelihoods and stimulates economic growth. By equipping young people with the tools to earn responsibly, we reduce the long-term burden on public finances. In turn, communities, businesses and the economy all benefit from a generation that is more resilient, confident, and economically active.

It’s Time to Stop Ignoring Teenagers

Britain cannot afford to keep sidelining young people, especially during a cost-of-living crisis. Change won’t come fast enough from Government or big businesses. But young people aren’t waiting — they’re working hard, building skills, and redefining what it means to be a contributor.

At MyPocketSkill, we see this every day. Young people are:

Helping small businesses grow
Earning real money
Saving for their future
Building confidence and work-ready skills

Britain’s hidden workforce isn’t waiting for permission – they’re ready now, and the smart move is to back them. It’s time for a radical cultural shift: treat young people as economic contributors, not dependents.