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Younger people in the UK are facing a double whammy of economic pain – with rising numbers no longer in education, employment or training, and an increasingly tough battle to get onto the housing ladder.
Alan Milburn, the former health secretary, is publishing an important review into why so many young people in Britain are economically inactive – it warns that one in six young people (or 1.25 million) could not be in education, employment or training within five years unless “urgent” action is taken.
Milburn, who has been looking at the problem for months, will pin the blame firmly on the system rather than young people themselves. He’s expected to say: “This is not a failure of young people. It is a failure of a system stuck in the past. Whether it is education or health or welfare, that system fails to enable their participation in the labour market. Instead, all too often it ends up putting young people on a path to a life not in jobs but on benefits. This should be the priority for the government. It should be the priority for all of us.”
To tackle the risk of a “lost generation”, Milburn is pushing for employers to be given more incentives to take on young people. That would give them a leg-up into the world of work, dodging the “Catch-22” situation where employers ask for work experience before giving someone a job.
The Milburn review will also make the case for reforming health and disability benefits, arguing that the welfare state is “exacerbating inactivity”. Another factor is the decline of the “Saturday job”, following a drop in entry-level jobs and opportunities in hospitality, leisure and retail, and a fall in apprenticeship starts over the last 10 years.
New data this morning will show if the NEET crisis is getting worse, as my colleague Richard Partington explains: Experts have warned of a crisis in youth jobs, with official figures due on Thursday expected to show the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) is close to breaking through a million – the highest level for more than a decade. Milburn will warn that without urgent action the number could continue rising from one in eight young people who are classified as NEET to one in six within five years – representing 1.25 million young lives.
Young people who manage to overcome the barriers of unemployment still find it very hard to buy a house. David Thomas, the outgoing chief executive of Barratt Redrow, has warned that first-time buyers are facing one of the most difficult times to purchase a home, due to affordability challenges (more on this shortly…).
The Agenda
- 9.30am BST: Latest quarterly estimates for young people (aged 16 to 24 years) who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) in the UK
- 10.30am BST: Former Health Minister Alan Milburn to hold press conference on his review of the NEETs crisis
- 1.30pm US PCE inflation report for April
