I just wanted to wade in here on the issue of finances.
There is no denying that the first few years (arguably until you get on an SFO contract) will be tough financially, especially if you're going to be living in the south east of England.
With that said, on balance I'd say that easyJet still offers reasonable rewards as an SFO, and certainly as a captain. It is perfectly feasible to achieve a command within 10 years (and it could be significantly quicker than that. The package for a captain in the UK is still worth more than £100k a year.
Things are even better financially if you are interested in one of the "legacy" European bases as an SFO (i.e. France, Italy, Germany), or if you decide to go to easyJet Switzerland.
It currently takes five years to achieve an SFO contract in Switzerland if you join as a cadet. As an SFO the salary is around 100,000CHF + sector pay, which would put your take home pay at around £5500 with exchange rates as they are currently. A captain here is taking home just shy of £9000 a month at current exchange rates, with a loyalty bonus of more than £10000 once a year. Additionally, I currently see around £3000 a month going into my pension.
In other words, if you can stick out the first few undoubtably tough years, there is still reasonable money to be made in easyJet. Whether it's worth the risk of taking out what amounts to a reasonably sized mortgage is for the individual to decide.