Young people are not snowflakes and shirkers, minister insists

Young people are not “snowflakes” but face a “generational challenge” to reverse the growing number who are not employment, the Work and Pensions Secretary has said.

Pat McFadden made the comments as he announced an additional £1 billion in spending to tackle those not in education, employment or training, the so-called “Neets”.

He said: “I don’t believe for a moment this notion that young people are somehow shirkers and snowflakes.

“They are let down by a system that doesn’t give them enough opportunity, and too readily funnels them down a path labelled ‘unfit for work’.”

He added: “Young people want to work, they want to make the most of themselves, and our job is to help them do that.

“In fact, we want them to have a better future, because this is a generational challenge.”

Mr McFadden said benefits reform “should be about opportunity” and the welfare system must put “work at its heart”.

He said: “Work is one of the most important ways in which we realise the best versions of ourselves, and too many young people are missing out.”

The Work and Pensions Secretary announced the Youth Jobs Grant at an east London college on Monday, but did not outline where the welfare benefit savings would be made.

The new measures entitle businesses to receive £3,000 for every person between the ages of 18 and 24 they employ who has been searching for a job for six months or more.

Small and medium firms will be paid £2,000 for every new apprentice they take on.

The Government says this £1 billion of extra investment comes from new money from the Treasury and from defunding three managerial apprenticeships, but said this was not a welfare savings exercise.

Mr McFadden explained the youth unemployment crisis has become increasingly pressing because of AI, demographic changes and immigration.

He said: “There are three big shifts taking place, which means tackling this issue is more urgent today than it has been in the past.

“First, the technological shift. AI is becoming more powerful very quickly. It will destroy and create jobs.

“The second shift is demographic. We are an ageing society. The ratio of working age people to pensioners is expected to fall by around a third over the next 50 years.

“Investing in the young is a bond between the generations.

“The third shift is on immigration. For years, the UK dealt with much of its labour needs through historically high levels of net migration, but that is changing.

“Those levels are falling and they’re expected to fall further.

“And the old question, why don’t we do more to train our own people,
has become more urgent.”

This policy expands on the youth guarantee announced in the budget, which introduced plans to eliminate national insurance contributions for employees under 21 and apprentices under 25.

It also extends the jobs guarantee which fully subsidises six months’ work for long-term unemployed 18 to 24-year-olds.

Some 60,000 people are expected to be supported by the proposals.

With the backdrop of recent Labour rebellions, Mr McFadden was confident he would be able to get his MPs’ support for the policy.

He said: “I see no reason why Labour MPs should not support welfare reform that has work and opportunity at its heart.”

The announcement made at Waltham Forest College comes amid criticism that high youth unemployment was as a result of the Government’s policies to increase national insurance contributions or the national minimum wage.

Mr McFadden said: “I want to face head on the accusation that this is all a result of the Government’s policies or decisions taken only in the past two years.

“The truth is, the number of young people, not in employment, education, or training, rose by 250,000 in the three years running up to the last election.”