Young people will be expected to engage with new support to find work, work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden has said, as he announced parents receiving benefits could get £4,500 a year if their child starts an apprenticeship. Speaking to the Guardian, McFadden echoed comments by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, suggesting that access to support would be conditional on proper participation. “We have an obligation to put good support in place,” McFadden said. “And then there is an expectation that people engage with the support.”
New bursary to remove benefit cliff-edge
The new bursary, funded with £30m from the current departmental budget, aims to compensate for a quirk in the system where families could lose the child component of universal credit when a teenager takes up an apprenticeship. This penalty most affects single parents or disabled teenagers under 18. The apprenticeship salary of £258 a week is lower than the lost benefits of £340 a week, creating a net loss of about £80 weekly. The bursary of approximately £4,500 per year closes this gap, ensuring families are not worse off.
Opportunities and expectations
McFadden said welfare reform would mean both “opportunities and expectations.” He added: “We are trying to get the system to ask: ‘How do we help you live your fullest life? How do we maximise your opportunities?’” He noted how the benefits system is “sticky,” trapping people on long-term benefits for extended periods. The bursary is part of removing unintended barriers to work, with McFadden stressing that young people must respond to the support on offer.
Burnham’s broader reform agenda
Prime Minister Andy Burnham is seeking to address mounting youth unemployment and on Tuesday said he would aim for fundamental changes in education to emphasise technical and vocational skills relevant to local businesses. Both Burnham and McFadden are determined to reform the welfare system, especially by providing more opportunities for young people on long-term sickness benefits to return to the workforce. Burnham said on Monday he wanted to make some support “conditional upon people taking opportunities that are presented in front of them,” potentially increasing conditions required to receive benefits.
System redesign ahead
McFadden said there would be a significant system redesign when the second stage of a report from social security minister Stephen Timms and disability campaigners reports back in the autumn. An interim report has already found that criteria for personal independence payments were not fit for purpose. “We’ll need a whole government response, not just a DWP response, because the issues affecting young people go way beyond the boundaries of the DWP,” McFadden said. The government also expects to receive the second part of Alan Milburn’s review this autumn, focusing on youth unemployment and lack of engagement with education and training.
Charities welcome bursary but urge awareness
Charities have welcomed the bursary plan but said young people need to be directly informed by potential employers. Enver Solomon, chief executive of the social justice charity Nacro, said: “If more young people are to take up apprenticeships it is vital their family isn’t worse off, so introducing a new bursary is a welcome step towards narrowing the income gap.” He added that the government must ensure the application process is easy and that nobody loses out due to lack of direction towards support, noting that even when wages outweigh benefit payments, “there can still be real difficulty as payments shift from parents to young people.”
