Milburn Review: Interim Report Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Work and Pensions
Jo White
Main Page: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)Department Debates - View all Jo White's debates with the Department for Work and Pensions
(1 week, 3 days ago)
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Andrew Western
The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight that incentives are needed to encourage employers to hire young people. That is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State recently announced the incentives that I have already laid out: supporting young people who have been on universal credit for six months by financially incentivising employers to hire them, and incentivising small and medium-sized enterprises to hire apprentices under the age of 25 earning less than £50,000.
Jo White (Bassetlaw) (Lab)
I have just had a group of year 8 pupils visit me in Parliament, and many of their questions were about the increasing numbers of young people on benefits, AI sweeping away jobs, and new opportunities and training for young people. The red wall MPs recognise that issues surrounding youth unemployment are not new, but I am hugely concerned that young people now see that as their future. I welcome the Government’s initiative for a youth hub in Worksop, and I am already working on that with partners, but does the Minister agree that we need to work with other partners beyond the DWP to resolve this problem?
Andrew Western
I do agree. I hope that my hon. Friend heard what I said in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier) earlier about the need to work holistically, across Government and outside Government, with partners in the charitable sector, employment support companies and so on, to ensure that a range of interventions are available so that young people do not—exactly as she outlines—see a life not in education, employment or training as their future. That is something we must stop.