Andy Burnham faces a difficult week as he seeks to overcome Labour criticism of sweeping welfare reforms designed to move more young people from benefits into employment.
The Prime Minister is expected to address Labour MPs at a special meeting on Tuesday morning, urging them to support Alan Milburn’s review of youth unemployment ahead of its formal presentation to the Commons.
Mr Milburn is expected to propose billions of pounds in upfront investment to help young people secure work, funded partly by reducing sickness payments and other benefits.
The review will set out measures to reduce the number of so-called ‘Neets’ – 16- to 24-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training. Their number passed one million earlier this year for the first time in more than a decade.
On Saturday, Mr Milburn suggested a legally binding ‘opportunity guarantee’ under which every 16- to 24-year-old would be offered a job, training or employment support.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: ‘It should be a guarantee for a young person. Because at the moment, the only guarantee they’ve got is a very simple thing – to get a benefit. What sort of a life is that?’
The proposals have prompted serious concern on Labour’s Left, with critics warning that young people already receiving state support could lose income. Some fear the changes could leave disabled people who are unable to work financially worse off.
One senior Labour MP told The Mail on Sunday on Saturday night: ‘I suspect this will only go ahead if it applies to future claimants – not those young people currently claiming benefits. In the end, I think Burnham will have to compromise on this – it’s the only fair way.’
Prime Minister Andy Burnham addressed the Welsh Labour conference 2026 at Venue Cymru in Llandudno on Saturday
Allies of the Prime Minister, however, warned that limiting the measures to new claimants would result in ‘years more delay’ before savings could be achieved.
In a BBC interview due to air on Sunday, Mr Milburn also warns that spending on benefits for young people is 25 times higher than funding for employment support.
He said the ratio of benefit spending to employment support should ultimately fall from 25 to between one and two to one.
‘To do that, we’ve got to invest, less in benefits, so we’ve got to be paying out less in benefits,’ he added.
Speaking at the Welsh Labour conference on Saturday, the Prime Minister said Labour ‘can do better’ for young people who feel ‘lost in their 20s’ and believe that benefits are their only option.
But last week, Mr Burnham stopped short of offering a ‘blanket assurance’ that every recommendation in Mr Milburn’s review would be implemented in full.
Meanwhile, outspoken Labour backbencher Clive Lewis said over the weekend that a ‘large number’ of his colleagues were unlikely to support the proposals. He said: ‘We didn’t come into politics to cut from the most vulnerable young disabled people’.
Labour managers remain privately confident that any rebellion can be limited to a small group of MPs on the party’s Left.
Former health secretary Alan Milburn speaks to the media after the interim Milburn Report on Young People and Work was published at the West Library Youth Employment Hub in north London in May
The Conservatives responded by setting out five tests for the review, including whether it would ‘cut the costs on businesses to create real jobs for young people, not taxpayer-subsidised ones’.
Mr Milburn’s programme is expected to be presented to the Commons on Tuesday by Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden. Mr Milburn is no longer an MP.
On Saturday night, Mr McFadden’s department announced that more than 90,000 18- to 24-year-olds claiming Universal Credit and seeking work would be guaranteed a fully funded, six-month job matched to their skills by March 2029.
The ‘Job Guarantee’ scheme had previously operated in six areas with some of the highest unemployment rates. It will now be extended across England, Scotland and Wales.
Mr McFadden said: ‘The longer someone is out of work, the harder it is to get back in, and no young person should be left waiting on a scrapheap for an opportunity.
‘That is why we are expanding our guaranteed jobs scheme across Great Britain and bringing it forward, so that help arrives when it matters most.
‘Employers are crying out for talent, and there is a generation of talent ready to be unleashed. We are backing them with the support they need to build a fulfilling future.’
But Conservative welfare spokesperson Helen Whately MP said: ‘Labour is treating the symptoms of its youth unemployment crisis rather than tackling the causes.
‘Under Labour, businesses are being hit with higher taxes and more red tape, while the welfare bill continues to spiral.’
Ms Whately added: ‘The answer is not to pour more money into half-baked government schemes – it’s to make it easier for businesses to create real, lasting jobs and ensure that those who can work are expected to do so.
‘The Conservatives would cut the jobs tax on young workers, create 100,000 more apprenticeships, and reform a welfare system that too often traps people in unemployment.
‘Young people deserve real support to get themselves onto the career ladder, not another government-funded waiting room.’
Liberal Democrat welfare spokesperson Steve Darling MP said: ‘There are currently more people out of work than vacancies.
‘A six-month placement is ultimately worth very little if there’s no job waiting at the end of it.
‘If Ministers want to get young people into work, they need to scrap their jobs tax and fix our broken trading relationship with Europe – both of which have killed off opportunities for young people.’
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