Andy Burnham DWP benefits changes for young people, Digi Mart USA News (United Kingdom): Andy Burnham has confirmed “radical” change to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefits system in an effort to bring down the welfare bill. The Labour Party government has promised “quite radical change” in supporting young people.
Mr Burnham, the Makerfield MP, spoke out on Friday in media interviews before the release of the second report by former minister Alan Milburn. The government is committed to “rethinking childhood,” he said.
He described this as “an issue of huge societal importance” in an interview with Times Radio.
“If you leave young people in their 20s without hope, that is a dangerous thing to do,” he said. “People need to have a path.
And I think if we look to the roots of this, I don’t think we have done enough to support young people growing up in a very different world to the one that many of us grew up in. The support hasn’t been there.”
He said Milburn’s report was not “a narrow consideration of just the benefits system.” “It’s got to be a root and branch review of childhood and how we support young people on their way in life,” he said.
On DWP benefits cuts, Mr Burnham said: “I am prepared to take difficult decisions because I can’t accept the idea that we have a million or more young people in their 20s on benefits. It’s not good for them.
It’s not good for anybody. So there does need to be quite radical change in the way we support young people.”
He also said: “Too many young people are not school-ready when they come to school. And the evidence is many don’t catch up.
If they’re not ready to learn in reception class, that gap stays all the way through the school system. So it’s part of this.
It is about rethinking childhood, in every aspect of it.”
Mr Burnham said “what will have to go up first is the spending on support for young people,” noting this may mean having to “reprioritise” some money. He said the overall bill would go down in time.
Asked whether this would happen in this parliament, he said: “You do it in a way that’s sustainable. And if it could be this parliament, as soon as possible is the thing I would say to you.”
