The Resurgo Trust was speaking after a new study 'Is Britain Fairer?' revealed that young people have the worst economic prospects for several generations.
Julia Evans from organisation, which amongst other things looks to help young people into work, told Premier's News Hour that "there's a one million young people in this country who are NEETs - not in education, employment or Training - so we see first-hand it's very difficult to get out of the cycle of poverty through work."
Research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said that life has become fairer for many people, but it also admits that progress has "stalled" or even worsened for some groups.
Young adults have suffered the greatest drop in income and employment and now face bigger barriers to achieving economic independence and success than five years ago.
Julia Evans said that cultural impacts could be at play too: "I think there are cultural issues definitely, I know that the report says young white males experience a combination of disadvantages that may not be seen in other groups, where perhaps there's more focus on education, particularly through some of the Indian and Asian ethnic backgrounds."
White boys from poor families were found to be suffering a combination of disadvantage compared to Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, who have seen the biggest improvements in education and employment.
In contrast, Black workers have suffered one of the biggest falls in wages, while Chinese and Indian pupils continue to perform better than other children, said the report.
However the report also notes that Britons have become more tolerant of sexual orientation and racial diversity, but less tolerant of religious diversity, with an increase in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate crime.
Listen to Premier's Hannah Tooley speak to Julia Evans here:
