Young people should have a legal guarantee of a job, training or employment support, the author of a major review of youth unemployment has told the BBC.
Alan Milburn, the former Labour minister whose proposals will be published in full on Tuesday, said those who refuse to take up the help could lose their benefits. In an interview to be broadcast on Sunday, he called for a radical shift in government spending away from benefits for young people to measures that support them into work.
Milburn's central proposal is what he calls an "opportunity guarantee". It would place a legal duty on the government to ensure young people have access to a route into employment, operating in a similar way to the legal responsibility councils have to offer homeless people accommodation or advice, or to accommodate children in care. He argues previous employment schemes have been temporary, and says a permanent legal entitlement is needed to tackle the long-running problem of young people not in education, employment or training, known as Neets. Almost one million young people in the UK are Neets, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, and the number topped one million earlier this year for the first time in more than a decade.
Milburn said the government is already spending 22 billion pounds a year supporting young people who are economically inactive, and that money needs to be spent differently. He said spending on benefits for young people is 25 times as much as spending on employment support, and he wants the ratio to shift to two to one. That would mean significant cuts to benefit spending and significant extra taxpayers' cash for training, education or other forms of support. He has already said that under-25s should no longer be able to claim some health benefits, the personal independence payment and the health element of Universal Credit, and would instead move to a "youth allowance" paid at the same level as the standard rate of Universal Credit.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has described Milburn's forthcoming report as a "watershed moment", but stopped short of committing to implement its recommendations in full. Speaking at the Welsh Labour conference on Saturday, Burnham said the report addressed the "youth detachment" that has been on the rise since the pandemic, and insisted paying for the reforms would not mean "more money" but "spending differently". The government is expected broadly to welcome the proposals, which will be published in full on Tuesday, with a statement in Parliament and draft laws early next year.
The proposals drew a mixed reaction. Lord Blunkett, a former Labour home secretary, said money from cutting benefits spending should be reassigned to supporting employment. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has previously said the government should not be spending "lots of time" on employment schemes, which she said would ultimately fail. Reform UK economy spokesman Robert Jenrick said the review was "pointless unless we get action from Burnham straight away". Green Party leader Zack Polanski called the conclusions "disappointing", while the Liberal Democrats want a 100-hour work experience guarantee and a careers coach for every young person. The TUC welcomed the legal guarantee as a "game changer" and called the number of Neets a "national emergency", but stressed that funding for additional support should not come from public service budgets.
