More than one million young people are now classed as Neets – not in education, employment or training – prompting Andy Burnham’s government to unveil a £4,500 annual bursary for families on universal credit to encourage teenagers into apprenticeships.
Currently, parents lose a portion of their child benefit when their 16- or 17-year-old leaves full-time education for an apprenticeship, a counter-intuitive disincentive that can cost families between £17 and £339 a week. The new bursary, funded through the £1bn additional investment in the Growth and Skills Levy announced in May, will offset that loss completely.
“Families on universal credit will receive up to £4,500 a year bursary to encourage teenagers into apprenticeships, as over one million young people are classed as Neets.”
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, who first mooted the scheme and has remained in the role under Burnham, said: “Every young person deserves the chance to build a future they can be proud of, and our welfare system should be a springboard to opportunity, not a barrier to it.” He added that the bursary would make sure “cost is not the reason someone misses out” on employment, calling the changes a “serious investment in the next generation and in the future of our economy”.
The bursary sits alongside a wider package of incentives: fully funded apprenticeship training for all eligible under-25s from 1 August, relief on employer national insurance contributions, and up to £8,000 in financial support for businesses that take on young apprentices. The measures form part of a drive to deliver 50,000 new youth apprenticeships by the end of this Parliament.
The Daily Mail, in a comment piece, argued that it is largely because of measures introduced under Labour that young people are finding it difficult to get a job, and called for Burnham to erase the “benefits mindset” Labour has inflicted on Britain. Burnham now faces one of his first major challenges as prime minister, as he seeks to set the tone for his government’s welfare reforms.
