Conservative plans to scrap benefits for under-25s who have not worked continuously for six months are "oblivious" to the harsh conditions facing young people in poverty, experts have warned.
Under the proposals for a "tough love" approach, unemployed people aged 16-24 who are able to work must enrol on a new Get to Work scheme to claim financial support. To receive the "Get to Work allowance", which would replace Universal Credit, they would have to attend job centres daily and take part in work experience placements, training courses or community work schemes through local councils.
Subsistence Allowance after six months
After six months on Get to Work, young people still seeking Universal Credit but not working would drop to the Subsistence Allowance, worth 70% of their previous claim. Those able to work would receive no welfare if they do not take part in the scheme.
Experts and campaigners criticised the plans as an "attention-grabbing" tick-box approach that fails to address the barriers young people face when trying to get jobs. They warned that cutting youngsters' benefits would mimic how austerity drove people into poverty and called for targeted employment support that treats people with "dignity".
Record NEETs and conference backdrop
The announcement comes ahead of the Conservative Party's annual conference in Birmingham, which kicks off on Sunday. Getting young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs) into work has been a key topic across major parties' conferences this year, amid a record one million NEETs. A review by former Labour minister Alan Milburn on the crisis is due to publish its final report this autumn.
Jen Clark, Amnesty International UK's Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Lead, said: "This attention grabbing 'tough love' approach is oblivious to the realities of the job market and the harsh conditions facing young people living in poverty. We already know that punitive sanctions do not help young people move into work."
Helen Barnard, director of policy and research at Trussell, warned that threatening to remove people's support would only make it harder for them to find jobs, saying: "Universal Credit already falls well short of what people need to afford the essentials like food, bills and toiletries – and it's forcing people to food banks. When you're struggling to pay for food and keep a roof over your head – the threat of losing financial support makes it harder, not easier, to find and keep a job."
Charities and think tanks weigh in
Sara Ogilvie, director of policy at Child Poverty Action Group, added: "If we learnt anything from the austerity era it's that cutting social security support drives up child poverty and cuts young people off from opportunity."
Two thirds of young disabled people with complex needs say jobcentres do not offer the support they need to overcome barriers, according to an August survey by disability charity Sense. Some 72% say there are too few jobs that meet their needs and 71% want more specialist employment support.
Harriet Edwards, Director of Influencing at Sense, said: "Too many young disabled people with complex needs who want to work are being denied the opportunity because of the barriers they face. We welcome policies that support more young disabled people into employment, but 'tough love' and threatening young people with financial hardship if they cannot find work is the wrong approach."
Haroon Chowdry, Chief Executive of the Centre for Young Lives think tank, said: "No young person should be written off or left to languish on welfare without support to get into work, training, or education. But this is a complex crisis without a single quick fix."
Kemi Badenoch said the benefits system is "unfair to the people who get up and go to work". She told The Spectator magazine: "It's unfair to the people who get up and go to work, having others earn more than them for not working. Even families on benefits know that the system is out of control. But no one wants to be the one to get off the treadmill first. We need to force that. Government has to do that."
