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The Chancellor said our economic emergency has only just begun, but the sad reality is that for many young women it was a struggle to make ends meet long before the pandemic hit.

A major new report and polling from Young Women’s Trust has found that an estimated 1.5 million young women have lost income since the start of the pandemic and over two thirds (69%) of young women claiming benefits this year say they did so for the very first time.

If the government is serious about reducing the gender pay gap and levelling up so that young women aren’t left behind, far more needs to be done to target support where it’s most needed.

Fawcett Society and Young Women’s Trust have today announced they are entering talks to investigate a potential merger, led by the organisations’ boards.

Sophie Walker will be leaving Young Women’s Trust this month, with current Chief Operating Officer Abi Shapiro taking up the role as Interim Chief Executive Officer.

Today's announcement may give reassurances to some, but it offers little comfort to the young women who have already lost their jobs, or who have been pushed into unpaid work, or who are furloughed from jobs that paid barely enough to begin with.

Young Women's Trust responds to Prof Calum Semple's appearance on BBC News this morning, where he said that a rise in hospital admissions for coronavirus included women aged 20 to 40, who were at risk of exposure to the virus because of their work in hospitality, care homes or because they were parents of schoolchildren.

Before coronavirus, there was already a crisis in mental ill-health among young women, so many of whom face daily discrimination and sexism resulting in financial hardship. So today's statistics are unsurprising given the overwhelming number of young women who have told us during the pandemic that it has exacerbated this situation.

Today’s ONS figures showing a slump of nearly a quarter of a million in employment in the UK in the last quarter is deeply concerning news for young women. We know that women and young people have been on the front line of the economic and domestic fall of out this crisis and risk being left behind in its wake.

For many young women who have spent the last four months working from home juggling unpaid care responsibilities and protecting their health, the reports that the Prime Minister will be ordering workers back to the office will be a worrying message.

Young women have borne the economic and social brunt of the coronavirus crisis, from job losses, increased childcare responsibilities, untold hours of unpaid work and an increase in domestic violence.

This July, Facebook’s policies for addressing hate speech are under increasing global scrutiny as big businesses boycott advertising on the platform.