Number of Neets in UK could hit 1.25m by early 2030s, Milburn review will say

Britain risks a 25% rise in the number of young people not in work or education to 1.25 million by the early 2030s without urgent government action to avoid a “lost generation”, a landmark report has warned. Alan Milburn, the leader of the review into why so many young people are economically inactive , said the UK risked opening up a “generational fault line” between young and old without urgent steps to overhaul schools, the health service, the welfare system and the jobs market. In his highly anticipated report to be published on Thursday, the former Labour health secretary will make the case for Keir Starmer’s government to launch a fresh push to reform health and disability benefits while drastically improving access to employment support. Calling for a reset of the system, Milburn will describe the welfare state as “exacerbating inactivity”, while arguing that new work programmes alone would fail to tackle far deeper-rooted problems. “This is not a failure of young people. It is a failure of a system stuck in the past. Whether it is education or health or welfare, that system fails to enable their participation in the labour market,” he will say. “Instead, all too often it ends up putting young people on a path to a life not in jobs but on benefits. This should be the priority for the government. …