Young people who refuse to work to lose benefits, says minister

Young people who refuse to work will face having their benefits cut, the work and pensions secretary has said.

Liz Kendall told the BBC the government will offer young people the opportunity to “earn or learn” under new proposals to be unveiled on Tuesday.

“In return for those new opportunities young people will have a responsibility to take them up,” she said.

Official figures published earlier this week showed that nearly a million young people were out of education, employment or training between July and September.

Under new measures to reform the welfare system, a “Youth Guarantee” for 18 to 21-year-olds aims to train young people or get them back into work.

Kendall told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg these proposals would see an overhaul of the apprenticeship system so “more people have the chance to train” with young people offered “the opportunity to be earning or learning”.

Asked if those who did not take up these offers would lose benefits, Kendall replied: “Yes.”

She said this would transform opportunities for young people.

“If you are out of work when you’re young that can have lifelong consequences in terms of your future job prospects and earning potential.”

In an op-ed in the Mail on Sunday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised that the benefits overhaul would crack down on “criminals” who “game the system”.

Kendall told the BBC that she believed there were people who can work but refused to do so, but said she thought these people were “in the minority” of benefit claimants.

Economic inactivity has grown rapidly since the pandemic. There are now 9.3 million people who are neither in work nor looking for a job – a rise of 713,000 since Covid.

Nearly three million people are out of work due to ill health, a 500,000 increase since 2019.

Asked about the rise in benefit claimants in recent years, Kendall said some people have “self-diagnosed” mental health problems, as well as those “diagnosed by doctors” – but added that there was a “genuine problem” with mental health in the UK.

Under the previous Conservative government’s plans to tighten eligibility for incapacity benefits, an estimated 400,000 people signed off work long-term would have lost payments.

The work and pensions secretary refused to confirm whether those people would keep their benefits under Labour’s proposals.

“We will deliver those savings, we will bring forward our own reforms,” she said.

Shadow housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake said that rising numbers of people out of work due to ill health was “a phenomenon caused largely by the pandemic”.

He said the previous government had been “dealing with it” and welcomed Labour’s focus on the issue, but added: “I want to make sure they do the right things rather than just talk a good game.”