'Total failure!' Andy Burnham told it's time for 'tough love' in benefits clampdown amid youth crisis

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Alan Milburn is urging Labour to take action and stop Britain's youths being 'consigned to a life on benefits'

Prime Minister Andy Burnham is being urged to take a "tough love" stance on young benefit claimants when it comes to any future Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) reform.

Alan Milburn, the former Labour minister tasked with reviewing youth unemployment, has proposed a new "duty to engage" with employment support.

Speaking to The Times, the Government adviser described the present system as a "total state failure" that was "morally indefensible," arguing it was time to stop "pussyfooting around the issue."

Mr Milburn proposed that young people receiving health and disability benefits who are capable of working, particularly those with milder conditions such as ADHD and anxiety, should be obligated to take up employment support.

Those who repeatedly refuse to participate could ultimately see their payments cut as a "last resort," mirroring backstop mechanisms already used in European welfare systems.

The measure would not apply to individuals with "severe and enduring" disabilities, he stressed. Close to one million young people aged 16 to 24 are currently outside employment, education or training, according to figures underpinning Milburn's forthcoming report, which is due for publication this autumn.

Notably, the number of out-of-work young people claiming means-tested benefits with no obligation to seek employment support has nearly doubled, rising from 160,000 in 2019 to 300,000 by the close of last year.

Fewer than half of all benefit payments directed at the 16-to-24 age group carry any work-related conditions attached to them.

Mr Milburn added: "At the moment what we're doing is basically saying to a near majority 'oh it's fine'."I t's the state at its worst. A total state failure."

He insisted that all financial support for young people, barring those with severe and enduring disabilities, ought to come with requirements to pursue work or training.

The advisor rejected the characterisation of young people as "lazy or feckless," insisting the reality was quite the opposite. He cited data indicating that 84 per cent of those classified as NEET actually want to find work.

He said: "It's the complete reverse of that. They're frustrated and they want to get on with their lives and they're aspirational and creative. It's not that they want to be on benefits. They don't.

"There's a deal. And the deal is that as the opportunities increase, so must the obligations because otherwise we will end up with a situation where more and more young people are consigned to a life on benefits

"And I know that sounds like tough love. But tough love is what is needed here."

Mr Milburn drew comparisons with continental European welfare systems, pointing to a recent visit to the Netherlands, where just 4.8 per cent of young people are NEET; fraction of the UK's 13.6 per cent rate.