Burnham gives no ‘blanket assurance’ on accepting Neets recommendations in full

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The Prime Minister said the detail of Alan Milburn’s youth unemployment review would come out next week.

Andy Burnham has described Alan Milburn’s forthcoming report on youth unemployment as a “watershed moment,” but stopped short of committing to implementing its recommendations in full.

The Prime Minister also insisted paying for the reforms would not mean “more money” but “spending differently” in Government when pressed on the large upfront investment they are expected to require.

Former Labour health secretary Mr Milburn’s review next week will recommend how to curb the number of so-called Neets – 16 to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training – which topped a million earlier this year for the first time in more than a decade.

He is expected to call for under-25s to no longer be able to claim the health element of universal credit (UC) or personal independence payments (Pip), moving them instead to a “youth allowance”, paid at the same level as the standard rate of universal credit.

Some Labour MPs – who last year pressured Sir Keir Starmer’s government to water down proposed welfare cuts – have voiced concerns over the extent of future support.

He told reporters in Dublin: “We will have to wait until the report is published. It’s a wide-ranging report, and obviously we’ll set out our response next week.

“But I think it’s really important to see the report as quite a watershed moment I think in terms of how we think about supporting young people and supporting young people into work.

“It’s starting to point to a very different way of thinking about welfare and support, and moving more towards guaranteeing support for young people to move forward and get into work, rather than leaving them in a situation where they don’t get the support when they need it and then end up on benefits in their 20s. Nobody wants that.

“So there are big implications, but I think we’ll have to wait for the report.

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