Matt Hancock has called for the introduction of dyslexia screening at primary schools to break the link with the learning difficulty and crime.
The ex-Health Secretary told MPs 80 per cent of young people "slip through the cracks" and head into the world of work without being diagnosed.
"There are correlations between dyslexia and unemployment, drug usage, school exclusions and homelessness," he told MPs and highlighted "more than half of the prison population are dyslexic".
"These are the knock on effects of undiagnosed dyslexia, and we have the tools to solve this injustice."
Introducing his Dyslexia Screening Bill, he said "I'm proud to be dyslexic," but admitted "it wasn't always that way".
"As a teenager, I didn't know I was dyslexic. I spent my school years focusing on maths and science subjects, always trying to avoid anything that needed more than a few sentences."
He recalled the "light bulb moment" he experienced once he was told of his learning difficulty.
Mr Hancock was not diagnosed with dyslexia until he went to Oxford University aged 18.
“I was one of the lucky ones who was caught. There are too many children who are not caught early enough. It is a quiet scandal that an estimated four-in-five dyslexic children leave school with their dyslexia unidentified," he told MPs.
He told the Commons "it is a quiet scandal" that some young people have their "potential unrealised and often their confidence undermined" because they are unaware of their condition.
Mr Hancock told MPs specialist teachers who had training to spot the learning difficulty, alongside cheap and essay computer-based screening tools” would help many young people.
Mr Hancock’s Dyslexia Screening Bill received support from a cross-party group of MPs, but is unlikely to become law without Government backing.
The former Health Secretary who was a key face during the Covid pandemic quit his Cabinet position after CCTV footage surfaced, showing him breaching social distancing rules, kissing his aide in his Whitehall office.
He told ITV's Peston show he is in no rush to get back into Government and is enjoying sitting on the back benches.
“It's a very important job and I think contributions from people who’ve been there in the heat of the battle [like] Mark [Harper] as chief whip... or Theresa May – the contributions she makes as former prime minister – and if I can make that sort of contribution in the House of Commons then I’ll enjoy doing it."
