Young unemployed people will be offered training or job opportunities in construction, care and hospitality as part of a UK government scheme, but could have their benefits cut if they do not take up offers.
Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, announced on Sunday that 350,000 new training or workplace opportunities would be offered to young people on universal credit, but added there would be “sanctions” for claimants who did not engage.
The policy is part of the Labour government’s plans to halt the increase in the number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet). Britain has almost a million Neets aged 16 to 24, in what some experts have called a youth jobs crisis.
Rachel Reeves announced £820m in funding at her budget last month for a “youth guarantee” of a six-month paid work placement for every eligible 18- to 21-year-old who has been on universal credit and looking for work for 18 months.
The job guarantee programme will start in the spring, with up to 55,000 young people in line. The government said the jobs would be in areas with some of the highest need, including: Birmingham and Solihull, the East Midlands, Greater Manchester, Hertfordshire and Essex, central and east Scotland, and south-west and south-east Wales.
Reeves also announced £725m at the budget to try to increase the number of apprenticeships. The government said on Sunday that this money would fund 50,000 extra apprentices.
McFadden also announced that 900,000 young people would be given a “dedicated work support session”, followed by four weeks of “intensive support” to try to find work experience, training or a job.
He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the government had an “expectation” that young people would take up the work.
Asked if young people could lose benefits if they don’t cooperate, McFadden said: “Yes, sanction is part of the system. This is an offer on one hand, but it’s an expectation on the other, because the future we don’t want for young people is to be sitting at home on benefits when there are other options out there.”
Ben Harrison, the director of the Work Foundation, a thinktank based at Lancaster University, said the funding and the prospect of more intensive work coaching was welcome, but warned the overall effects could be harmful if the threat of sanctions pushes people into unsuitable or insecure jobs.
“Evidence from the UK and overseas is clear that these schemes must focus on connecting individuals to ‘good’ jobs with a living wage, job security and opportunities to progress if they are to lead to long-term sustained employment,” he said.
“If reforms end up pushing young people into ‘any job’ under the threat of benefit sanctions, they may do more harm than good to their future work prospects. Nearly half of young people currently not in education, employment or training report are disabled, so it is vital that participants have some agency over the types of jobs and sectors they work in.”
Harrison highlighted that the hospitality, care and construction sectors targeted by the government often provided insecure work, making it difficult for people to step up to longer-term stability.
The Department for Work and Pensions said there was “an expectation that young people will take up the opportunities they are offered, and sanctions to benefits could be applied for those who don’t engage with the offered support without good reason”.
The apprenticeship money will include £140m managed by local mayors to link young people to local businesses, in the belief that mayors “best understand their local economies”.
Any apprenticeships for under-25s with small and medium-sized businesses will also be fully funded by the government. Previous schemes required businesses to pay for 5% of the cost, which the government said was a “burden”.
Keir Starmer said: “If you choose an apprenticeship, you should have the same respect and opportunity as everyone else. It’s time to change the way apprenticeships are viewed and to put them on an equal footing with university.”
