TAXPAYERS are spending 25 times more on welfare for young people than on getting them into work, a former Labour minister has revealed.
Youth inactivity czar Alan Milburn insisted it was “shameful” and a total “system reset” is needed including welfare reform.
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Alan Milburn says taxpayers are spending TWENTY-FIVE times as much on welfare for young people as on getting them working Credit: Alamy
Mr Milburn said: ‘Welfare reform is absolutely essential and needs to be done’ Credit: Alamy
The ex-Health Secretary will unveil his interim findings this week as he probes why nearly one million 16-24 year-olds aren’t in work, training or education.
He said: “What is shameful. . . is that, as we’ve uncovered in the course of this review, for every £25 that we spend keeping young people on benefits, we spend only £1 helping them get into work through employment support.”
Mr Milburn told the BBC: “This is a failure. This is the failure of the welfare system, but it’s a failure, I’m sorry, of the school system, the skills system, the health system.
“We’re not prioritising getting young people into a situation where they can be learning or earning and instead we’re transporting them into the world of benefits with incalculable costs for their life chances.”
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Sir Keir Starmer shied away from attempting to lower the welfare budget last July following a backbench rebellion.
But Mr Milburn said it was essential to tackle the issue with the welfare bill set to rise from £330 billion this year to more than £400 billion by the start of the next decade.
Speaking to the BBC’s Jattvibeday with Laura Kuenssberg, he added: “Labour is what it says on the tin. It’s the party of work. Work gives purpose. Work gives income. Work gives meaning.”
“Welfare reform is absolutely essential and needs to be done. But as I said, it’s got to be within the context of a wider set of reforms to state institutions.”
He says businesses will need to adapt to the rising tide of anxiety and distress by offering more mental health support.
He also said that young people were not “snowflakes” but were part of a “bedroom generation”.
Mr Milburn said: “They are sort of living in their bedrooms – they are on all the time, they’re never off.”
He said their concentration levels were affected by social media and “that is having an impact on their ability to work”.
His full report is expected later this year.
