Too many of Britain’s young are not working. Labour has a plan to fix that

 

Nearly a million young people are not in education, employment or training (Neet). Over the past six months as Work and Pensions Secretary, I’ve heard some of their stories – and what they have told me should concern us all.

The young carers, the pupils who fell behind at school and struggled to catch up, the graduates who’ve applied for dozens of jobs, and the young people who’ve overcome mental and physical health problems.

There is no one cause for becoming Neet. But there is one thing they tell me they want, which is support to get into meaningful work, or take steps in that direction, which is so crucial to our sense of pride and purpose.

The young people I’ve met are not shirkers or snowflakes but feel the world of work is not working for them – youth unemployment has been rising for four years – and we need to tackle it, because this is not just an issue for people in their late teens and early twenties.

Young people who are Neet experience the scarring effects for years or even decades. Early career unemployment has a lasting effect on earnings in your thirties and beyond.

The number of young people on sickness and disability benefits has doubled in six years. There are complex reasons for this, which I have asked the former health secretary Alan Milburn to look into.

But what I can say with confidence is that a lifetime on benefits is not what these young people aspire to – and is not the life we want for them, because these benefits are sticky.

This is a statistic which should bring us all up short: a 22-year-old on the health element of Universal Credit is less likely to get a job than someone in their 50s on the same benefit.

That’s why I’ve announced a package of incentives to help these young people get the start they need: a £3,000 youth jobs grant for employers who hire young people who’ve been out of work for six months.

A shift in apprenticeships towards young people, with a £2,000 bonus for small businesses who take on a young apprentice, and a range of short courses in sectors of the future like AI, electric vehicles and modular housing.

And finally, an expansion of the Jobs Guarantee in which eligible under-25s, who’ve been out of work for 18 months and on Universal Credit for six months, will be offered a fully subsidised job lasting six months, a chance to turn their lives around.

The roots of the Neet crisis often go back years before they show up in the statistics, too often driven by child poverty and its pernicious long-term consequences.

Almost half of young people not working or in education report a health condition – and the number is growing. Children growing up in the poorest areas are four times more likely to develop mental health problems than their peers. Fewer than one in four children from the lowest-income households leave school with five good GCSEs. Poverty does not just limit what young people can afford. It impacts their health, their prospects, and ultimately whether the world of work ever feels within reach.

The economic cost is enormous. Child poverty and its consequences cost an estimated £40bn a year, driven by higher benefits spending and growing demand on mental health services and the NHS. The Neet crisis is not only about welfare but about opportunity and getting the chance to get on in life.

That’s why the removal of the two-child limit isn’t just about money but about changing lives and helping prevent losing a significant proportion of the young generation to inactivity – a consequence which would cost us all.