UK welfare benefit reform and youth NEET support, Digi Mart USA News (United Kingdom): Prime Minister Andy Burnham has warned that welfare costs will have to be cut to allow the government to spend more in other areas. He is awaiting the outcome of a major review that will recommend how to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs) who are claiming benefits.
While visiting an employer in Wiltshire on Friday, Mr Burnham was asked how his plans to give young people more career support fit with the need for government departments to cut their budgets in light of pledges to increase defence funding. He told Times Radio: “It is going to be difficult.
I’m not going to pretend otherwise, but we will reprioritise, and we will find funding to build our response to the Milburn review.”
He added: “Of course, in time, the savings will come, and there will be a crossover point, but there will be a need to invest up front in young people. But it’s an investment in society.
It’s the right investment to make.” Asked whether he accepted the welfare bill would have to rise before it fell, Mr Burnham replied: “It wouldn’t be the welfare bill. It would be the investment in the support that teenagers need and the guarantees that I want to put in place for them.”
He said he would like young people to have a guarantee of a 45-day work placement between ages 16 and 18. “They’re linked to T-levels at the moment,” he said.
“I think they should be available to all young people who want a quality work placement of that kind.”
Speaking to the BBC, the Prime Minister was pressed on when he hopes to see the welfare bill come down. Both he and Chancellor John Healey have come under scrutiny since the Budget for signalling they would like to see it reduced, without committing to whether this would happen before a general election.
Mr Burnham said welfare spending could come down “in time” as a result of spending more on support for NEETs.
Asked whether this would happen before an election, he said: “You do it in a way that’s sustainable though. And if it could be this parliament, as soon as possible is the thing I would say to you, would want to see that change, that balance shift as quickly as possible.”
Ministers are expected to set out their response to the Timms review into disability benefits reform, and the Milburn review on getting more NEETs into work, in the coming weeks. The government is grappling with how to keep the ballooning welfare bill under control.
The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts it will rise to £431 billion by the 2031-32 financial year, largely driven by health-related and pensioner benefits. More than half of all welfare spending goes to pensioners, including the state pension and other benefits.
