Pat McFadden: Fall In Number Of NEETs Is Good News, But There’s Much More To Do

Few things are more important than the chance of work and opportunity for the country’s young people. Yet too many have missed out on that chance for too long.

Between the end of the pandemic in 2021 until the general election of 2024, the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs) rose by quarter of a million.

But now, after years of neglect, there is the prospect of hope.

The Labour government is investing £2.5 billion over the next few years in youth employment support, including our Youth Guarantee, aimed at bringing more hope to young people and reducing the enormous waste of talent and energy that comes with having so many young people out of work.

Part of the Youth Guarantee is a Jobs Guarantee for long-term unemployed young people.

If someone has been claiming Universal Credit for 18 months or more, the government will step in, partner with an employer and offer six months paid work.

It is a targeted scheme aiming at those who have been out of work for the longest time. And that makes sense because the longer someone is out of work, the harder it is for them to get back in. Confidence drops. Self belief disappears. Mental health suffers.

But the good news is that once people are in work, this picture can change very quickly.

This is not just about earning a wage, important as that is. It’s also about the sense of pride and purpose that comes with having a job.

This week at Boots HQ in Nottingham, I met some of the first beneficiaries of the Jobs Guarantee. Young people who’d been on the dole for years but were now fired up with belief and ambition. They didn’t just have jobs. They had hope. And that is what we want for more for the country’s young people.

The Jobs Guarantee is aimed at helping 90,000 young people into work over the next few years. In addition, we will provide 300,000 more work experience and training opportunities, helping young people get out of the bind of no experience and no job.

We have also put in place hiring incentives of £3000 for employers to take on young people who have been out of work for six months or more. It’s all part of the same message of hope and opportunity for young people.

I don’t believe the welfare state should limit its ambition to simply guaranteeing people a minimum income. I think it should offer them a future too and that is what the Youth Guarantee is all about.

This morning’s NEET numbers showed a fall of 30,000 over the last three months, reducing the total to just under a million. That is still too high and this drop is only one quarter’s figures, but if it is sustained it will be welcome news.

With the Youth Guarantee coming into force, I want more young people to have the chance for the future that is being enjoyed by the young people I met at Boots.

And when the government receives the final report from the Milburn Review this autumn, that’s exactly what we will be trying to ensure.

Pat McFadden is the work and pensions secretary.

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