Young jobseekers are getting just 10 minutes of support a week from overstretched work coaches under government plans to get them back into employment, the author of a major review into youth inactivity has warned.
The Government’s youth unemployment advisor, former Blair-era health secretary Alan Milburn, told The i Paper he believes young people who want to work are being let down by a welfare system which is not built to support them.
The number of Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs) has been rising since Covid lockdowns ended in 2021. According to the latest government data, there are 957,000 young NEETs, equating to more than one in eight of all 16-24-year-olds in England.
Shorts
As Milburn gears up to publish the first part of his government-commissioned report into youth unemployment on Thursday, he said: “There is an argument – a myth – that young people are lazy, that they’re inventing their mental health problems, that they’re a ‘snowflake generation’ – and nothing could be further from the truth.”
