Radical action is needed now to fix Britain’s broken benefits system

Detailed summary

Whilst the Milburn Review is welcome, it suggests we need 10 years to get young people back into work and get the youth benefits bill down. That simply isn’t good enough.…

For years the number of young people not in education, employment or training has rocketed. Nobody cared. A revolving door of politicians saw the crisis coming but decided to brush it under the carpet, condemning millions of young Brits to the scrapheap of unemployment and welfare.

More than one million 16- to 24-year-olds are now NEET - the highest figure for over a decade. Add the long-term sick and the total hits 2.7 million. And today, there are 27 young foreign workers for every young working Brit. We are squandering an entire generation with a multi-billion-pound welfare bill for the taxpayer.

Andy Burnham talks about fixing this scandal, but he is a master of the approach that got us into this mess. On issue after issue he kicks the can down the road. He is a Prime Minister of rhetoric over results.

Whilst the Milburn Review is welcome, it suggests we need 10 years to get young people back into work and get the youth benefits bill down. That simply isn’t good enough. Youngsters need help today, not in 2036.

Radical action is needed now to get them back into work and fix Britain’s broken benefits system.

Reform would remove benefits for young people choosing not to work, and reverse Rachel Reeves’s jobs tax to encourage them back into work.

As Education Secretary I will double apprenticeships with our Apprenticeship Wage Credit, end the Great University Scam and cut the worthless degrees that leave graduates with virtually no employment prospects. The snobbiness around technical skills will be a thing of the past.

I’ll scrap the arbitrary cap on medical places to train more British doctors and nurses rather than importing them from abroad, and put British workers at the front of the queue for jobs.

Reform will not stand idly by as we lose another generation of young people.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Daily Express. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.