Currently, under 1million young people are ‘Neets’, which Mr Milburn wants cost the taxpayer and the economy a staggering £125billion – more than the total spend on education each year
Alan Milburn has warned of a £125billion cost the country from the ‘Neet’ crisis – but hit out at “myths” of a snowflake generation.
It comes as the former Blair-era Cabinet minister launches a major report on the issue with bleak estimates the number of ‘Neets’ – those young people not in education, employment or training – could hit 1.25million within five years.
More than 1 million young people are classified as ‘Neets’ according to the latest figures, which Mr Milburn warns cost the taxpayer and the economy a staggering £125billion – more than the total spend on education each year.
But he makes clear younger people are not to blame for the failures of state and said he did not accept the “caricature of a generation that is not interested in employment”.
In his 217-page report – commissioned by Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden – he says: “I do not accept that mental health is simply an excuse. Nor do I accept that the answer is to tell young people who are struggling simply to try harder. These are myths. Sometimes cruel ones. Young people are not to blame. Institutions that should have provide opportunities to them are the ones that have failed.”
Mr Milburn concludes: “It would be easier to blame one thing: Covid, smartphones, benefits, schools, employers parents or young people themselves. The evidence does not support a single explanation. It supports something harder to accept: that the institutions we built to support young people into adulthood are no longer fit for that purpose, and that the country has known this for some time.”
Mr Milburn’s interim report shows that over six in 10 (61%) of young people classed as ‘Neets’ have never had a job – compared to 42% two decades ago.
And of eight of the 10 English local authorities with the highest likelihood of being ‘Neet’ are in the Midlands and the North of England, including Blackpool where almost a quarter of young people fall under the category.
In his report published today, he says : “What should have been treated as an urgent national crisis has been absorbed into the background noise of public life. That tolerance is no longer acceptable.”
He adds: “For decades in Britain, the foundation of our unwritten social contract has been that each generation would be able to do better than the last. That great British promise for this generation is being broken. Our job is to fix it.”