LONDON - Five months after celebrating his entry into the real world, Steve Stephenson, 21, found himself living off a ￡53 weekly dole. "It's demeaning, soul crushing," he said.

With an International Relations degree from Kent University, Stephenson sends off between five and ten job applications a day.

"I just want a job and become financially independent, even a postman job would do," he said, showing despair and disillusionment in his eyes.

Stephenson is just one of about a thousand British residents inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement and marched into the City of London last Saturday.

Anger over unemployment, austerity, growing inequality, tax policies and opposition to the financial elite hung over the protests in 951 cities in 82 countries.

Raising banners saying "Strike back!" and "No cuts!", the protesters in London chanted slogans attacking corporate greed and social inequality.

"Our flawed banking system has destroyed all possibilities of achieving equality, so I have come ask for more opportunities for young people," Stephenson said.

Income inequality in the UK is at its highest in 40 years and youth unemployment, already running high, has hit close to one million, according to figures released by Britain's Office for National Statistics last week.

The general lack of prospects for youth is widely thought to have contributed to the rioting and looting that paralysed areas of London in August and spread to other major cities.

Emma Close, 23, is under tremendous stress to find a job while finishing off her last year of studies at Sussex University.

With Britain's recent tripling of university fees, a master's degree is no longer an option for her. Close has joined the protesters outside Saint Paul's Cathedral near the London Stock Exchange to paint on a large canvas the words "we are the 99%".

"I am worried also because recent proposals to privatize the UK's National Health Service could lead to the disappearance of local medical services required by my brother, who has learning difficulties," she said.

More than 2,000 people protested against the government's upcoming NHS bill on Oct 9, blocking the Westminster Bridge (which links a large NHS hospital and the Houses of Parliament) in the afternoon.

Scrapper Duncan, 42, came to join the protest from Brighton for his wife, a NHS doctor.

"My wife cannot come because she has a bad leg, but she worries about her patients unable to afford healthcare so I will make her voice heard," Duncan said.

Equipped with a mat, a blanket and lots of thick clothes, Duncan says he plans to stay in London "for a while".

NHS's privatization will forever change the lives of people like James Smith, 30. Born with a mental illness, his condition suddenly worsened two years ago.

"I was in hospital for a few months, and I now see my doctor to receive treatments twice a week. I'm not in poverty, but I definitely cannot afford private care," he said.

Living in a council flat in London's West End, Smith weekly receives ￡100 of disability allowance. His medical condition forced him to quit a professional artist job, leaving him with no other source of income.

He asked: "We are very lucky to have a welfare state, but will this now disappear?"