The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) faces renewed pressure to introduce a Saturday job scheme to alleviate the growing benefits crisis among young people. Former Labour minister Alan Milburn described it as “shameful” that the government spends 25 times more on benefits for 16 to 24-year-olds than on initiatives aimed at getting them into employment.
Milburn highlighted a “whole-system failure” that leaves approximately one million young people—nearly one in eight aged 16 to 24—out of work, training, or education. He warned that this situation is deteriorating both in absolute numbers and proportionally.
“Benefits should not become the place where ambition goes to die,” Milburn said, urging a shift from a welfare system that manages failure to one that actively helps young people build skills, confidence, and hope for the future.
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The decline in job opportunities compounds the issue. Hospitality vacancies have halved over the last four years, and opportunities for Saturday jobs—often a vital entry point for teenagers into the workforce—are in “freefall.”
Supporting this view, Sun columnist Kate Ferguson noted that Saturday jobs historically offered the first crucial step on the career ladder. She recalled how such early work experiences helped individuals advance, including herself, from being a paperboy to reaching prominent career heights.
Ferguson called for a national mission to get young people into work by reinstating Saturday jobs through measures such as reducing the cost of hiring teenagers.
Adding to the concern, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) revealed that benefits can sometimes provide up to £2,500 more annually than a full-time worker earning the National Living Wage. Their data showed that one in four full-time workers in Britain—around six million people—would be financially better off leaving their jobs to claim benefits. They also reported a collapse of 119,000 under-25s in employment in the previous year.
These findings underscore the urgency of reforming welfare policies to incentivize employment, especially among young people, and reignite ambition and opportunity through initiatives like Saturday jobs.