UK risks £125bn hit a year from youth unemployment, landmark report says

Britain risks a financial hit worth £125bn a year from a worsening crisis in youth worklessness after a rise in the number of young people not in employment or education to more than 1 million. In a landmark government-backed report, Alan Milburn warned that Britain’s economy and the public finances were losing billions of pounds a year amid the growing risk of a “lost generation” of young people. The former Labour cabinet minister said youth disengagement was a mounting economic risk to the country, as he urged the government to undertake a fundamental reset of policy covering schools, the health service and the welfare state. Figures from the Office for National Statistics on Thursday showed a rise in the number of 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK who were not in education, employment or training (Neet) in the three months to March to 1,012,000 – breaching the 1 million mark for the first time since 2013. Speaking at the launch of his report, Milburn said the figures highlighted “probably the most significant issue the country faces” amid growing alarm over the future prospects of young people in Britain. “It’s actually more than a statistics; it’s a warning, a warning that far too many young people are reaching adulthood only to find the door to opportunity closed,” he said. …