Image by Tom Parsons on UnsplashSocial distancing measures during the coronavirus pandemic has given a new meaning to the problem of low social mobility. But make no mistake: the long term reverberations of the crisis will likely exacerbate the divide in life chances between the poor and privileged. Covid-19 has the scope to increase the toxic mix of rising economic and education inequality that hinders social mobility. Young people growing up today were facing declining absolute mobility, meaning falling real wages, fewer opportunities and the growing spectre of downward social mobility (Elliot Major and Machin, 2018). He was formerly chief executive of the Sutton Trust and received an OBE for services to social mobility.