The crisis facing Britain’s young people is politicians’ fault. To fix it, we need a generational response | Andy Burnham

Resumen detallado

Alan Milburn’s review will mark a watershed moment for our approach to welfare and childhood. This is how I’m determined to create changeReport: Burnham pledges early intervention…

Alan Milburn’s review will mark a watershed moment for our approach to welfare and childhood. This is how I’m determined to create change

A generation of young people did not wake up one morning and decide they did not want to work. The fact that a million 16- to 24-year-olds are now not in education, employment or training (Neet) is not their fault. It is ours, as politicians.

We have failed to give them the support they need as they have grown up in a tougher world. This has become an economic catastrophe for the country – and a moral one too.

Sixteen years ago, the Conservative government took a deliberate decision to make young people bear the brunt of the cuts they chose to make. Those becoming adults today are the children of austerity. At four years old, with Sure Start centres closed, too many were already beginning school behind, without the support they needed to catch up. By 12, too many had seen youth clubs shut down and had fewer places to go in their communities with the closure of libraries and leisure centres. Teenagers in need of mental health support were told to wait months or even years.

A country focused on the future would make young people its priority for investment – not the target for cuts. It would give all young people a path in life, giving them confidence and hope for the future. Britain has done neither. It is time to acknowledge that this failure has left too many young people ill-prepared for the challenging world they now face. And, of course, that has costs. Under the Conservatives, the welfare bill shot up by £114bn.

What is the Tory solution now? To punish those young people once again. The crude cuts they are proposing to the welfare bill would simply compound the mistakes they made in government. They would drive children into poverty and increase levels of family homelessness even further, piling further pressure on councils, the NHS and other public services. This is not “reform”.

The way I see it is that we have two choices: we…

I…

Inicio del artículo, extracto de The Guardian Business. Para leer el resto, abra el artículo en el sitio del medio.