More than 2,000 young adults, including graduates, students and unemployed school leavers, were questioned in an the Institute of Commercial Management (ICM) poll.
Nearly a quarter (22 per cent) said they knew of someone who had gone without food because they could not afford three meals a day, the 'Daily Express' reported.
As many as 3 per cent said they knew someone who had sold their hair. Some 10 per cent had heard of someone who had got sucked into drug dealing to make extra money.
Eight per cent said they knew another young person who had worked in the sex industry, either through prostitution, glamour modelling, escort work, lapdancing or stripping.
A further 4 per cent said they knew someone who had faked an insurance claim.
"Our research has uncovered a generation of risk-takers, credit-hunters and those willing to go without the most fundamental basics of everyday life in order to save money." said director Michael Taggart MRM, for which the survey was carried.
"With wages falling, unemployment rising and state benefits increasingly unavailable, it is small wonder that some are taking desperate measures." said Taggart.
"Clearly, many young people feel they have to resort to desperate and tawdry measures in order to get by." said Blogger Iona Bain, who sat on an expert panel for the study.
"Their housing, education and employment prospects have rapidly deteriorated in recent years. If we let impoverished young people drift into debt, drug dealing and the sex industry in order to survive, we will have, financially and morally, a lost generation on our hands." said Bain.
Money worries have seen levels of anxiety among students soar, according to another study by studentbeans.Com website.
Its survey of 1,401 UK students found 37 per cent claimed to be suffering from anxiety. Penny-pinching among those surveyed had reached extreme levels with many going without food, textbooks and central heating.
More than a third said the costs of university were hitting parents' finances and 42 per cent said they would consider living at home to save money during their degree.
