The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is considering a groundbreaking plan to provide financial support to parents whose children take up apprenticeships. This initiative targets 16 and 17-year-olds and is part of the Labour government’s wider effort to reform the welfare system and tackle youth unemployment.
Concerns have been raised about the growing number of young people not in education, employment, or training (NEETs). According to the recently published Milburn report, nearly one million young people fall into this category, prompting calls for urgent action. Alan Milburn emphasized the imbalance in current spending: “For every £25 we spend keeping young people on benefits, only £1 goes toward helping them enter the workforce through employment support.”
Currently, some families experience a significant drop in income when their teenage children start apprenticeships. This is because they lose entitlement to child benefit and parts of Universal Credit, sometimes resulting in a loss of hundreds of pounds each week. The Social Security Advisory Committee highlighted an extreme example where a single parent with a disabled child could see their Universal Credit reduced by £339 per week if their child begins an apprenticeship.
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In response, ministers are discussing plans to introduce bursaries that would compensate parents with grants worth hundreds of pounds per month, effectively bridging the financial gap during this critical transition. Milburn described the current situation as a “scandal” of neglect, stating, “It’s one thing to be ignorant. It’s another thing to be neglectful, and we as a society – and we in politics – have been neglectful of what is, frankly, a scandal.”
The DWP affirmed its commitment to reversing the 40 percent decline in youth apprenticeships over the past decade. The department is investing £2.5 billion to combat youth unemployment and plans to create 50,000 additional apprenticeships, aiming to provide young people with a solid start to their careers.