Young, ambitious and out of work: ‘I’ve gone from Oxford to zero jobs. It’s a bit of a fall’

T homas doesn’t leave the house much. Apart from walking his dog, the only other excursion the 24-year-old regularly makes is a “humiliating” weekly trip to Iceland, where he stocks up on seven £1 frozen meals, usually an assortment of bland curries with the occasional garishly sweet, takeaway-style Chinese meal. “You’re going in and buying seven and the cashier is 100% thinking: oh, that’s one a day,” he says. Half the time, he doesn’t bother eating them. …