Alan Milburn has warned that the 'Neet' crisis could cost the country a staggering £125 billion, while hitting out at 'myths' about a snowflake generation. The former Blair-era Cabinet minister is launching a major report on the issue, with bleak estimates that the number of Neets—young people not in education, employment, or training—could reach 1.25 million within five years.
Currently, more than one million young people are classified as Neets, according to the latest figures. Mr Milburn warns that this costs the taxpayer and the economy a staggering £125 billion, more than the total annual spend on education. However, he makes clear that younger people are not to blame for the failures of the state, stating that he does not accept the 'caricature of a generation that is not interested in employment'.
Milburn's report blames institutions, not individuals
In his 217-page report, commissioned by Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, Mr Milburn writes: 'I do not accept that mental health is simply an excuse. Nor do I accept that the answer is to tell young people who are struggling simply to try harder. These are myths. Sometimes cruel ones. Young people are not to blame. Institutions that should have provided opportunities to them are the ones that have failed.'
He concludes: 'It would be easier to blame one thing: Covid, smartphones, benefits, schools, employers, parents or young people themselves. The evidence does not support a single explanation. It supports something harder to accept: that the institutions we built to support young people into adulthood are no longer fit for that purpose, and that the country has known this for some time.'
Geographical disparities and rising Neet numbers
The interim report shows that over six in ten (61%) of young people classed as Neets have never had a job, compared to 42% two decades ago. Furthermore, eight of the ten English local authorities with the highest likelihood of being Neet are in the Midlands and the North of England, including Blackpool, where almost a quarter of young people fall under the category.
In his report published today, Mr Milburn says: 'What should have been treated as an urgent national crisis has been absorbed into the background noise of public life. That tolerance is no longer acceptable.' He adds: 'For decades in Britain, the foundation of our unwritten social contract has been that each generation would be able to do better than the last. That great British promise for this generation is being broken. Our job is to fix it.'
