The age of gilded youth is over. Today's under-thirties are the first generation for a century who can expect a lower living standard than their parents. Research into the lifestyle. and prospects of people horn since 1970 shows that they are likely to face a lifetime of longer working hours, lower job security and higher taxes than the previous generation. When they leave work late in the evening they will be more likely to return to a small rented flat than to a house of their own. When, eventually, they retire it will be on pensions far lower in real terms than those of their immediate forebears. The findings are revealed in a study of the way the ageing of Britain's population is affecting different generations, Anther Tinker, professor of social gerontology at King's College London, who carried out much of the work, said the growth of the proportion of people over 50 had reversed the traditional flow of wealth from older to younger generations, 'Today's older middle-aged and elderly are becoming the new winners,' she said. 'They made relatively small the last three to four decades face the prospect of handing over more than a third of their lifetime's earnings (in taxes) to care for them.' She revealed that between 1993 and 2000 the proportion of under-25s who owned their own property fell from 21% to 19% and it is still declining. The number of 25 to 29-year-old men living with their parents rose from 18% in 1978 to 23% in 1998. But perhaps the most telling figures are for people living without a companion or spouse. In 1973 just 2% of 25 to 35-year-olds lived this way by 2000 the figure was 12%. Rachel Thomson, a social science researcher at South Bank University, has studied social mobility. 'Working-class youngsters can still expect to do better than their parents provided they live in the right area,' she said. 'but for many with middle-class backgrounds, downward mobility is increasingly likely.' The two biggest financial blows for under-thirties are student loans and property prices. Marie-Claire Smith, 28, a civil servant in London earning just over ￡30,000 a year, said: 'At my age my parents had a home and were starting a family. I graduated five years ago with ￡6,000 in student loans, a ￡2,000 overdraft and a postgraduate loan of ￡3,000 which I have to pay off. I'm getting paranoid that by the time my boyfriend and I can afford a home and a family I'll be less fertile.' One refuge is futile optimism. Thomson said: 'The studies found people refuse to talk about downward mobility even when it is clearly happening to them. Doing worse than your parents is the great modern anxiety and they hate to face up to it.' The under-thirties can, however, take consolation in being much more widely travelled. Cheap air fares and wider acceptance of taking years out before or after university have allowed many to go far afield before starting a career. Tinker believes that the major cause for the lower living standard of today's under-thirties is that______.