Milburn calls for legal duty to offer young people a job or training

Young people should have a legal guarantee of a job, training or employment support, according to Alan Milburn, the former Labour minister who wrote a major review of youth unemployment. He told the BBC in an interview due to be broadcast on Sunday that those who refuse the help could lose their benefits.

The BBC and the Mirror reported that the full proposals will be published on Tuesday. They aim to tackle the problem of almost one million young people in the UK who are not in education, employment or training, known as Neets.

A legal duty on government

Milburn's central idea is what he calls an "opportunity guarantee". It would place a legal duty on government to make sure young people have a route into work. The BBC said it might operate in a similar way to the legal responsibility councils have to offer homeless people accommodation or advice, or to accommodate children in care.

The Mirror reported that a guarantee of an apprenticeship or training place already exists, but only after a young person has been unemployed for 18 months. Milburn argues that every previous employment scheme was temporary and that a permanent entitlement is needed. He pointed out that the Neet rate has barely been below 10% in 25 years.

He described the plan as a straightforward deal: more opportunities for young people, but also more obligations on them to take those opportunities up. A generation living on benefits, he said, is bad for young people and for taxpayers.

Shifting money from benefits to work support

Milburn told the BBC that spending on benefits for young people is 25 times as much as spending on employment support, and he wants the ratio to move to two to one. That would mean significant cuts to benefit spending and extra public money for training, education and other support, according to the BBC. He said the government already spends £22 billion a year supporting young people who are economically inactive and that the money has to be spent differently.

What it means for young people on benefits

The BBC said Milburn accepts that some young people would lose out on benefits. He has already said that under-25s should no longer be able to claim the personal independence payment or the health element of Universal Credit. The Mirror reported that they would instead move on to a new system paid at the same level as the standard rate of Universal Credit, but with fewer people entitled to it.

The Mirror also reported that the review will propose a work allowance for young people claiming benefits. At present, it said, only claimants with children or those assessed as having limited capability for work get one, and everyone else loses 55p of benefit for every £1 they earn from the first pound. Under Milburn's proposal, every young person currently receiving benefits would get a work allowance set at the value of 16 hours a week at the minimum wage.

Reaction and what happens next

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has called the forthcoming report a "watershed moment" but declined to give a blanket assurance that he will accept it in full. He said the government will respond next week, and told reporters that paying for the reforms would mean spending differently rather than spending more.

Lord Blunkett, a former Labour home secretary, told the BBC the money saved from benefits should be moved into supporting employment. The Mirror reported that he suggested the overall shake-up could take longer than the 11 months it took Tony Blair's government to put its 1997 new deal for the unemployed in place, but said it must be done. The government is expected to broadly welcome the proposals, with a statement in Parliament and draft laws early next year, the BBC reported.

Opposition parties responded differently. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has previously said the government should not spend lots of time on employment schemes, which she believes would ultimately fail. Reform UK's economy spokesman, Robert Jenrick, said the review is pointless without immediate action. The Liberal Democrats want a 100-hour work experience guarantee and a careers coach for every young person, while the Green Party warned against demonising young and disabled people.

Around Prague, based on reporting by BBC News, Mirror

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