Burnham pledges early intervention and ‘benefits backstop’ to tackle youth jobs crisis

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Prime minister promises ‘root-and-branch rethink’ of support for young people as Milburn report advises sweeping changes to some benefitsAndy Burnham: The crisis facing Britain’s…

Prime minister promises ‘root-and-branch rethink’ of support for young people as Milburn report advises sweeping changes to some benefits

Andy Burnham has pledged to intervene as early as childhood to tackle youth unemployment before a watershed review, promising “a root-and-branch rethink of how we support childhood in the modern world”.

Burnham said the government would intervene at all the stages of life in which young people fell behind, and “long before they find themselves out of work and reliant on the state”, including providing more opportunities for vocational training in schools.

Writing in the Guardian, the prime minister said ministers’ response to Alan Milburn’s long-awaited review into the crisis of youth unemployment in the UK would not be “a traditional … reform” but “societal and generational”.

He promised to reduce the number of Neets – 18 to 24-year-olds not in employment, education or training – which topped a million this year for the first time in more than a decade.

Hoping to head off opposition from leftwing MPs in his own party, who rebelled to block Starmer’s welfare changes last summer, Burnham said the government would “invest in our young people and give them a proper chance to get on”, but said the support “will have to come with responsibilities”.

“If we give young people genuine opportunities to learn, train and work, we should expect them to take them where they can. Benefits must become the backstop, not the starting point,” said Burnham.

Milburn’s long-awaited report on youth unemployment will promise almost half a million job and education opportunities within a decade, but will also advise sweeping changes to the benefits system for under-25s.

Some young people will lose their personal independence payments and the right to claim the health element of universal credit, and instead will get a new youth allowance paid at the standard rate of universal credit.

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