Pat McFadden
MP for Wolverhampton South East · Labour · United Kingdom
“In his review Alan Milburn considered that issue and said that, “the UK’s NEET crisis is much more long-term and deep-seated than any decisions taken in the last few years.” As I said earlier, 400,000 more people are in work this year than last year, and the number of young people in employment is up since the election.”
“Since our last DWP questions, both Alan Milburn and the Pensions Commission have published their respective interim reports on young people and on the current state of saving for retirement. I look forward to receiving their final reports later in the year.”
“As Alan Milburn pointed out in his recent report, the UK’s NEET crisis is much more long-term and deep-seated than any decisions taken in the last few years. There are 400,000 more people in work than last year. The number of young people in employment is up by 74,000 since the election.”
“I thank the right hon. Gentleman and send him commiserations for whatever has left him reliant on his crutches today. I am happy to congratulate the businesses he mentioned in his constituency. He raises a serious point: it is important not only to come up with the right policy, but to make it simple for businesses to use.”
“My hon. Friend is right, and I thank Cardiff football club for being a partner. We are supporting nearly 1 million young people and creating up to half a million opportunities for jobs and training.”
“We are making strong progress on expanding youth hubs, with around 130 already in operation across Great Britain. In March, I announced the locations that we want to open in this year, and I have just announced a further 180 locations for the following two years.”
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“What a contrast with the Conservatives’ record on apprenticeships, which was to take opportunity away from young people— [ Interruption. ] They don’t like to hear it, but I am going to continue! We are introducing new foundation apprenticeships in retail and hospitality, and new short courses in AI, electric vehicle charging point installation, electrical fitting and assembly, mechanical fitting and assembly, modular building, solar photovoltaic installation, and welding—the skills that young people need for the future. On top of that, the jobs guarantee, which we previously announced for the long-term unemployed, will be extended to those aged 22 to 24. Those young people will get six months of paid work, at 25 hours per week paid on minimum wage rates.”
“We have already announced a youth guarantee to help the young unemployed. It involves intensive work coaching, 300,000 work experience and training places, and subsidised work for long-term unemployed people aged 18 to 21. However, we will now go much further, with an explicitly pro young people package, aimed at helping them to learn and earn. From this summer, we will introduce hiring bonuses for businesses that hire a young person who has been out of work for six months. The bonus will be worth £3,000 per young person. There will also be bonuses of £2,000 for small and medium-sized businesses that hire young apprentices. Both bonuses can be combined if the young person hired has been out of work for six months or more.”
“In fact, we can hear them claiming it right now. But the truth is that the number of young people not in education, employment or training rose by 250,000 in the three years running up to the last election, and the Conservatives did precisely nothing about it. Youth unemployment has been rising since 2022, and youth employment never reached pre financial crash levels in any single year of the Conservatives’ 14 years in power. On top of that, the Conservatives kicked away the ladder of opportunity from young people when they presided over a shocking 40% fall in youth apprenticeship starts over the past decade. The problem is long term and deep rooted. We will back young people with more youth apprenticeships, more chance of getting a job, and more help in overcoming the challenges they face.”
“Lady explain the number of NEETs rising by a quarter of a million in the last three years in which they were in power? How does she explain their lack of action to deal with it? When it comes to welfare, what I have said today is very clear and simple: the best means of welfare reform is to put work and opportunity at the heart of the system, and that is what we are doing with this plan.”
“They will have heard her dismiss our changes, which will boost youth apprenticeships. They will have heard her pretend that we can somehow wish all this away with tax changes. That proves that the Conservatives have learned nothing from their disastrous management of the economy. They will have heard her say that the package does not offer young people anything, when we have announced a plan to give them a new deal with more jobs and more apprenticeships. That is the difference between our approach and theirs. I want to give young people in this country opportunities to get skills, to get a job, to get off benefits and to build a better life for themselves. That is much better than kicking the ladder away and leaving the system unchanged, which is what the Conservatives did. How does the hon.”
“I fear that the hon. Lady’s response was written without her listening to a word in the statement. She has confirmed that the Conservative party not only bequeathed us the problem, but has learned nothing about how to tackle it. There was no statement of responsibility, no statement of regret and no apology for the record on youth apprenticeships—in fact, she defended cutting youth apprenticeship starts. It is a continued pretence that somehow all of this started just two years ago. The hon. Lady asks where the funding to help young people comes from. It comes from stable management of the economy—something that the Conservatives know nothing about and that we have practised for the past two years. Young people, at whom all of this is aimed, will have heard her disparage efforts to get them into work and to give them more opportunity.”
“My hon. Friend says that young people deserve support; I believe that with the right support, young people want to work and to make the most of their life. He asked how people in his constituency would be helped. They could be helped through the hiring incentives that I have announced, and through the hiring bonuses that will allow small and medium-sized businesses to hire a young apprentice. The young unemployed in his constituency will be helped, because we are offering hope, ensuring that they get a chance, and offering the sense of pride, purpose and dignity that comes with having a job.”
“I think that many people would be surprised to hear that in some years, most apprenticeship expenditure has gone on those over the age of 25 who are already in work. We have made a choice; we have chosen young people, and for good reasons. We have chosen them because of the scarring effects of youth unemployment, which I mentioned in my statement, and we now have on record that both the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats are opposed to our prioritisation of young people.”
“The hon. Gentleman opposes the changes that we made to national insurance, but he neglects to mention that employer national insurance contributions are not required for employees under the age of 21, unless they are earning more than £50,000 a year. He opposes those changes while supporting extra expenditure on the NHS. As I have said to him a few times, if his party supports extra expenditure, it really has to support revenue-raising measures to fund it. Young people will have heard the hon. Gentleman dismiss the changes that I have set out today; in fact, they will have heard him say that if he was asked to choose between management courses and young people, he would choose management courses—that is now the established position of the Liberal Democrats.”
“My hon. Friend asks about disabled young people. It is really important that we get more help and support to disabled people who, in the past, were too often signed off, written off and forgotten about. That is not good enough for them or for the country as a whole. The Connect to Work programme, which is devolved to elected mayors and local authorities, is helping disabled people, and the WorkWell programme seeks to get over the divide between health advice and employment advice. She is right that there are issues with the Access to Work programme. It is a really good programme, but there is a backlog that I want to see reduced because it is an important programme that helps disabled people to get into work and stay in work.”
“I welcome the hon. Lady’s welcome of the youth guarantee. Perhaps she might have a word with her hon. Friend the shadow Minister, who did not welcome it. She asks about national insurance, but the problem is not new—what is new is the package of help for young people that I have announced today.”
“I welcome my hon. Friend’s question and her praise for the great city of Newcastle, which I am sure we would all echo. On small and medium-sized businesses, she is right that we need to ensure that the systems are as easy to use as possible. There is a real direction of help in the package to small and medium-sized businesses, particularly with the hiring bonus for young apprentices. That is perhaps why the Federation of Small Businesses has described this programme as a “game changer” and a “decisive step forward.””
“I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman’s description of this statement will do me good or harm among my right hon. and hon. Friends, but once again he makes the mistake of assuming that this problem is something that happened only in the last 18 months, which is where the Conservative party is going wrong. It is a long-term and deep-rooted problem. We need a different approach to tackle it, and that is why we need to offer hiring bonuses to businesses and to redirect the apprenticeship system to help young people, precisely because of the long-term scarring effects of young people being out of a job for any length of time. That can mean worse mental and physical health and, in some cases, even lower life expectancy than their peers in work. We have brought forward this package of measures today because of our concerns about that.”
“We heard the Conservatives defend the 40% figure on the drop in youth apprenticeship starts—that is on the record. If they want to defend and own that record, so be it, but we want to prioritise opportunities for young people, and that is what we are doing with this package. There is a lot in it for employers in Burnley and for small and medium-sized businesses, which now have a new financial incentive to give a young person the vital start in life that can set them on a path of pride, purpose and dignity. That is what having a job gives you.”
“Once again, the Liberal Democrats speak against the prioritisation of youth. We are for training throughout the system and throughout the age range, but we have to make a decision about where to prioritise it with a public budget. I have unashamedly made the decision to prioritise young people, and I think that is the right thing to do.”
“Let me return the greeting of a happy St Patrick’s day to my hon. Friend. My hon. Friend makes an absolutely vital point about information. When I talk to young people, they tell me that when they are at school, there is a lot of information about how to apply for a university course. That is great, and it is a great route for young people, but the information on how to apply for an apprenticeship is not as clear; it is not readily available to them or as much a part of the preparation process that many schools put young people through. There is a job of work to be done on information, because we want the clearest, most user-friendly information possible to be available to young people and their parents when making such a vital decision about their future.”
“This is a deep-rooted, long-term problem, and we need new answers to it. That is why I have brought forward this package today.”
“I have a lot of respect for the right hon. Gentleman; I walk past his picture every morning. He was responsible for a major reform to the welfare system with the introduction of universal credit, but after that his party stopped reforming the system. We are seeing the costs of that, particularly with what has happened in the last few years. On the Work programme, I am happy to look at any successful programme to help people into work. We have more than one of these programmes in the Department, and they should all be evaluated. The right hon. Gentleman makes an important point; we need to get support to people to overcome the barriers to get into work. With regard to national insurance, as I have said, all these things are costs for business, but this is not a new problem.”
“My hon. Friend is right. That ratio of 1:8 is too high, and it grew a lot in the last few years. She asks about discussions with young people, and she makes a really important point. When I talk to young people, they tell me that they want to work and make the most of themselves; they just need a platform that will help them. In every part of the programme that we have brought forward today, whether it is the apprenticeship changes, the help for the long-term unemployed, the short apprenticeship courses or the hiring bonus, the motivation that I have had is to give young people a platform on which to stand and take the next step in their lives.”
“The hon. Member raises an important point. The issue of youth inactivity does not start at the age of 16; it often starts well before that. The reforms to the SEND system announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education very recently are really important in that regard, and we want the maximum opportunity for people. The last thing that we want is for people with special educational needs to be written off from the labour market; there has been too much of that in the past. Part of the package that I have outlined today is not about helping people into work then forgetting about them, but about supporting them once they are in a job so that we can get job retention and give young people the maximum chance of success.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for his question—I know that he takes a deep interest in this issue. There is an urgent need to help young people with the technological change that is taking place in the labour market. That is not just a British phenomenon; graduate unemployment in the United States went up from 5.3% to 5.7% in the final quarter of last year, and youth unemployment in the United States reached a four-year high last summer. We have to be less insular in our debate and understand that young people face particular challenges. That is why, for example, the different apprenticeship courses that I outlined in my statement are really important. They will train young people to cope with a different technological environment and ensure that we give them the maximum chance of success.”
“The OBR predicts that unemployment will peak this year and then fall in every year of the forecast— [ Interruption. ] Conservative Members disparage the forecast, but I gently remind them that disparaging the OBR did not work out too well for them a few years ago. In fact—to make a more serious point—the country is still paying the price for the fact that they did so, so I suggest that they learn that lesson.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for his deep interest in this issue. I have visited his constituency, and I give a warm welcome to the apprentices from Peterborough who are in the Chamber today. He asked about supply chains and small and medium-sized businesses. Those businesses will benefit from the hiring bonus for a young apprentice, which is why the Federation of Small Businesses has welcomed this package, describing it as a “game changer” and a “decisive step forward”.”
“I warmly welcome the Chancellor’s support for this package and the help that she has given me in putting it together. The right hon. Lady mentioned vacancies—there are about 700,000 vacancies in the economy, including 50,000 in manufacturing. I attended a jobs fair in Blackpool a couple of weeks ago, where almost 1,000 jobs were allocated on the day. There are vacancies in the economy, but we have to help young people to be in a position to be trained and have the confidence, skills and support they need to take them up.”
“Let me praise the magnificent industries in the Derby area, many of them manufacturing companies. As I said, there are 50,000 vacancies in manufacturing right now. What the trade bodies tell me is that they need help with skilling young people to take up those vacancies. That is precisely what will be made easier by the package that we have brought forward today.”
“The rate of young people not in education, employment or training is, I believe, even higher in Scotland than it is in the UK as a whole. The hon. Member asks for more information on timescales. The hiring bonuses, for example, will be introduced from this summer, and the apprenticeship changes will be introduced from later this year.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for the enormous amount of work that he put into organising the successful Blackpool jobs fair, which I attended a few weeks ago. He is right that the evidence from that jobs fair is that the vacancies are there, with more than 1,000 jobs allocated on the day of the jobs fair itself. Hospitality is a great entry route for young people. We have announced a foundation apprenticeship in hospitality as part of this process, and I hope that extends opportunity to other young people, similar to the opportunities that he had when he was a young man.”
“As the right hon. Member knows, I have great respect for him. I am happy to reach out to upReach to speak about the work to which he refers. As I said a moment ago in response to another question, graduate unemployment is an international issue, not just one for the UK. There has also been an uplift in the United States, which we think of as possibly among the most dynamic economies in the world. Precisely because there is technological change, we need to help young people and support them through it. Policy has to catch up with the discussion taking place among young people themselves, because they are very alive to this issue, and they are evaluating their employment choices in terms of what they think will happen in the labour market and which jobs will be sustainable through this period of significant technological change.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for drawing attention to the record of the last Labour Government. I have described this as a new deal for new times, and it does adapt some of the lessons that we have learnt in the past to today’s very changed labour market. She mentioned the importance of locally-led work. It is true that local labour markets differ, and I want to work closely with local authorities and elected mayors on this agenda, because I think that they all want the best for the young people in their area. The Connect to Work budget, for example, is devolved for the next few years, with considerable flexibility for local leaders in relation to how they use the funding.”
“I agree that “NEET” is not the best and most user-friendly term, but it has been used for some time. As for the hon. Lady’s question about what is devolved and what is UK-wide, the hiring bonus will apply throughout the UK, but the apprenticeship aspects are devolved to Wales.”
“I think that the statement offers hope to young people throughout the United Kingdom. I look forward to a positive and close working relationship between the UK and Welsh Governments on this issue, because I believe that both Governments share a desire for young people, in Clwyd North and everywhere else in the country, to have the best start in life. I think that, for example, the £3,000 hiring bonus and the jobs guarantee for the long-term youth unemployed, which are UK-wide initiatives, can help people in my hon. Friend’s constituency and offer hope that there is a solution to the scarring effect of leaving young people to fester in long-term unemployment, which is not good for them and not good for the country either. [ Official Report , 25 March 2026; Vol. 783, c. 3WC.] (Correction)”
“The hon. Lady refers to national insurance. As I have said, there is an existing tax break for employers of people under the age of 21 in the system, and they will continue to have that, but in addition they will have the hiring bonuses that I outlined in the statement. When we bring those things together, it sends a message that we want to help employers to employ young people and give them a good chance in life.”
“My hon. Friend is right. Let me repeat what he said, so that the whole House hears it: when the Conservative party was in power, there was not a single year in which youth employment reached the levels that there had been before the financial crash. Perhaps no other figure shows what a long-term problem this is. It is right that we have targeted support to enable young people not just to earn a wage, but to get the sense of pride and dignity that comes with having a job. I do not want to bombard the House with too many statistics, but another shocking one is that more than half the young people who are not in education, employment or training have never had a job in their life. They have never experienced the sense of discipline, obligation and pride that comes with getting up and going to work in the morning.”
“Youth unemployment has been going up since 2022—it has been going up for around four years. What we have not had is a specific package to tackle it, but that changes with the package that I have announced today, which will offer real hope and opportunity to young people in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency. My gentle advice to him is to go and make the most of this package. That is what he should do for the young people in his constituency.”
“My hon. Friend is right: there is a particular challenge for young carers. A significant proportion of the 1 million young people who are not in education, employment or training have caring responsibilities. I commend the work of Shipley college, and I am very happy to keep talking to her about this issue to see what help we can give to young carers.”
“It will apply to young people between the ages of 18 and 24. The hiring bonus will be available from this summer, and we will look at having a retention mechanism so that people are not hired one day and let go the next.”
“I think employers want to do the right thing—they want to give young people a chance. My hon. Friend asks whether the incentives can be stacked, and the answer is yes. For example, if a small or medium-sized enterprise wants to take on a young apprentice who has been unemployed and on universal credit for six months or more, it can claim both the £2,000 apprenticeship incentive and the £3,000 hiring bonus. That sends a strong signal to business, and it is why the Federation of Small Businesses has called this a game-changer, just as my hon. Friend did. It sends a strong signal about giving young people a chance, which is exactly what I think small and medium-sized businesses want to do.”
“All those things should be good for the small businesses, particularly those in the hospitality sector, in his constituency.”
“The hon. Member mentioned his career in washing up, and let me tell him that we have that in common, because one of my first jobs was as a dishwasher in what I believe was Scotland’s first Mexican restaurant, Viva Mexico. I inherited that job from the current First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, the previous dishwasher in that restaurant, so we can be the three founding members of a national union of dishwashers. The hon. Member asked for my message to employers in his constituency. It is to look at this package and avail themselves of the support in it—hiring bonuses for young unemployed people, specific help for small and medium-sized enterprises when hiring a young apprentice, and foundation apprentices for retail and hospitality industries.”
“My hon. Friend makes the very important point that a significant proportion of the 1 million young people not in education, employment or training are not claiming benefits at all, and not signing on for standard universal credit or the health element. One way in which we want to reach those young people is through the expansion of our youth hub programme, which gives them a chance to come into a place—often a sports or community institution—and get a range of help on the health front, the housing front and the work-finding front, because young people do not live their lives according to Whitehall departmental boundaries, and why should they? It is up to us to tailor the help to the way they live their lives, and get it to them in the places where they want to be.”
“These short courses or apprenticeship units are something that employers have called for. Until now the minimum length of time for an apprenticeship has usually been eight or 12 months, or something like that, but these can be for a matter of weeks. We will publish more information about them as soon as we can. The sectors, including AI, in which the first wave have been announced are all sectors in which we will need the skills of young people. We are trying to adapt the training offer that we fund to the needs of employers, and one way to do that is with more short courses.”
“Yes, of course. I want to work with the Scotland Office, the Scottish Government and anyone who can make an impact. I visited the Bellshill jobcentre in central Scotland just before Christmas. I was told by the area manager that over 40% of the young people on her caseload were on what was called the “health journey”. That should bring us up short. It should tell us and warn us about the stickiness and the long-term effects of a young person being off long-term on sickness benefits. We have to do more to get opportunity to those young people and help them into work. I hope the package I have brought forward today can help us to do that.”
“Obviously, I know the west midlands well and I know the passion that our Mayor, Richard Parker, has for expanding opportunity, offering more skills and more opportunities to young people. I work closely with him on that agenda. I do not believe we should set area against area. Of course I am concerned about youth unemployment in the west midlands. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that his constituents and mine, and those in every other constituency in the west midlands, can benefit from the proposals I have brought forward today.”
“I do not need any convincing about how great a city Glasgow is, and I will be going there very soon. My hon. Friend asks what this announcement will mean to young people in his constituency and the city of Glasgow. The hiring bonuses I have announced today will be available all over the country, as will the subsidised job—25 hours a week at minimum wage rates for six months for young people who have been unemployed for 18 months or more—precisely to give young people not just a wage but the sense of pride and purpose that comes with having a job. I hope that that gives hope to the young people in Glasgow. It is hope that we need to give to young people all around the United Kingdom.”
“I welcome the hon. Lady’s—somewhat limited—support for the announcement, but she is right that we need to support young people in the workplace. There is perhaps a touch of nostalgia about some of the comments about young people not being work-ready, because that was the traditional role of youth apprenticeships. When the ladder is kicked away from them, it is no wonder that more young people are not work-ready. We are changing that with this announcement, because we are re-emphasising the importance of youth apprenticeships. I hope she welcomes that part, too.”
“I thank my hon. Friend and parliamentary neighbour for her question. I know Asda in Great Bridge. What a wonderful employment rate that is, after the programme. It gives hope to young people with learning disabilities, who should never be written off; there has been too much of that in the past. Part of our work is to get more help and support to young people with disabilities, in order to give them the confidence and the opportunity that a job can bring.”
“My hon. Friend is right that we have tried to put extra incentives in this package for small and medium-sized businesses. In particular, there is the hiring bonus for young apprentices, which is aimed at both young people and small businesses. I hope that will be of help to the small businesses in her constituency. She is also right that clarity of information is important. Schemes like this can be complex, so I want to work with officials to make the information about this one, and the administration of it, as clear and simple as possible—consistent, of course, with the need to properly use and protect public money.”
“My hon. Friend and I had a great day in Bellshill just before Christmas; I am grateful to him for the visit, and to the staff at the local jobcentre for explaining to us both the work that they were doing. The programme I am announcing today offers hope to young people in his constituency; the £3,000 hiring bonus will be available throughout Scotland. Of course, apprenticeship funding is devolved, but I hope that the Scottish Government will provide the maximum opportunity for young people to combine an apprenticeship role with the hiring bonus, which is available to businesses across the country.”
“Tom Kerridge has achieved a great amount and done fantastic things. I was very pleased to meet him and talk to him about this package a few days ago, and I welcome his warm support for it. I agree with my hon. Friend on the response from those on the Opposition Front Bench. Young people throughout the country will have heard them dismiss the help that we are putting in place. If that is what the Opposition want to do, that is up to them, but we take a very different view. We want to give hope and opportunity to young people; we want to stop dismissing them; and we want to give them belief in their future. That is what this package is about.”
“We do not propose restricting the hiring bonus by sector, though my hon. Friend will have heard me list in my statement the areas covered by the new apprenticeship units—areas such as artificial intelligence, electric vehicle charging, infrastructure, solar panel installation, welding and so on. As regards the new short apprenticeship units, there are some specific areas that we are putting forward first.”