Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of mental health on trends in the number of people who are not in education, employment or training; and whether this is reflected in support pathways.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We know that quality employment, education, and training have a positive impact on mental health, and leads to greater independence and a feeling of fully participating in society.
That is why, as set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper, DWP and DfE are developing a Youth Guarantee, which will ensure that all 18–21-year-olds in England have access to education, training, or help to find a job or an apprenticeship.
This will build on the wide range of support Department for Work and Pensions already offers to help young people and those with health conditions or disabilities to move into work. This includes flexible provision driven by local need, nationwide employment programmes and personalised support delivered by work coaches based in Jobcentres and in local communities working alongside partners. One such programme is Connect to Work, a voluntary, locally commissioned Supported Employment programme. It is open for anyone who is disabled, has a health condition or is experiencing non-health related barriers to work. Participants are given a dedicated specialist employment support adviser who helps them to identify their career goals and overcome any specific barriers to employment.
The Government is also investing in mental health support services for young people. We are expanding Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to ensure that every school and college has access to specialist mental health professionals, providing access to early support to address problems before they escalate. Additionally, we are also launching Young Futures Hubs, which will bring together services at a local level to support children and young people, helping to ensure that young people can access early advice and wellbeing intervention.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of (a) local and (b) regional factors on trends in the number of people who are not in education, employment or training.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The quarterly estimates for young people (aged 16-to-24 years) who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) in the UK can be found here: Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) - Office for National Statistics. Currently, there is no regional or local breakdown in these Official Statistics. The most recent release from the ONS shows that the NEET rate in the UK has gradually increased on the year to 12.8% in Apr-Jun 2025.
The Department for Education produces estimates of young people (aged 16 to 24 years old) who are NEET for England, which can be found here: NEET age 16 to 24, Calendar year 2024 - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK. Currently, there is no Official Statistical release that shows the trends in 16–24-year-olds NEETs at the local level.
The Department for Education does produce a yearly release for those aged 16-17 at local authority level for England. This can be found here: Participation in education, training and NEET age 16 to 17 by local authority, Academic year 2024/25 - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK. This uses the National Client Caseload information system to estimate the number of 16–17-year-olds in England who are not in education, employment or training.
The Get Britain Working White Paper set out our ambitions to transform employment support and tackle economic inactivity. As part of this, local areas in England are producing Local Get Britain Working Plans to develop a system-wide approach to identifying and addressing local labour market challenges.
The Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, which launched in Spring 2025, are identifying and engaging young people who require additional support to connect them to opportunities. We will use the learning from the Trailblazers to inform the future design and development of the Youth Guarantee.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of social factors on trends in the number of people who are not in education, employment or training.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP recognises that a range of social factors contribute to trends in the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). Research by the Youth Futures Foundation (published December 2023 - Risk factors for being NEET among young people - Youth Futures Foundation), has identified several key risk factors that increase the likelihood of young people becoming NEET. These include low educational attainment, often linked to early years development, socio-economic background, and parental education, as well as having a limiting health condition or disability, early parenthood, and care experience or family estrangement.
Further analysis from Impetus (2025) (Impetus Youth Jobs Gap - Exploring compound disadvantage) and the Resolution Foundation (2025) (False starts • Resolution Foundation) underscores the importance of addressing compound disadvantage: young people facing multiple challenges, such as having Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND); coming from certain ethnic backgrounds; or from an area of economic disadvantage; are more likely to become and remain NEET.
As set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper, our vision for a Youth Guarantee is to ensure all young people aged 18 to 21 are learning or earning, to prevent them from becoming economically inactive before their careers have even begun.
The Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, which launched in Spring 2025, are identifying and engaging young people who require additional support to connect them to opportunities. We will use the learning from the Trailblazers to inform the future design and development of the Youth Guarantee.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data his Department uses, other than the Labour Market Force survey, to estimate the population of people who are not in education, employment or training.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) uses multiple data sources to inform our view of how young people are performing in the labour market and whether young people are not in education, employment or training (NEET). These include statistics based on survey and administrative data sources.
The quarterly estimates for young people (aged 16-to-24 years) who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) in the UK can be found here: Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) - Office for National Statistics. This is an official statistic in development, which is used to inform our view of NEETs in the UK.
The Department for Education produces estimates of young people (aged 16 to 24 years old) who are NEET for England, which can be found here: NEET age 16 to 24, Calendar year 2024 - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK. This is an official statistic in development which is used to inform our view of NEETs in England. Currently, there is no Official Statistical release that shows the trends in 16–24-year-olds NEETs at the local level.
The Department for Education does produce a yearly release for those aged 16-17 at local authority level for England. This can be found here: Participation in education, training and NEET age 16 to 17 by local authority, Academic year 2024/25 - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK. This uses the National Client Caseload information system to estimate the number of 16–17-year-olds in England who are not in education, employment or training.
The ONS publish the educational status and labour market status for people aged from 16-24. This can be found here: A06 SA: Educational status and labour market status for people aged from 16 to 24 (seasonally adjusted) - Office for National Statistics. This is an official statistic in development, derived from the LFS and published monthly.
The Annual Population Survey (APS) is used to see youth labour market trends at various geographical levels. This can be access from here: Nomis - Official Census and Labour Market Statistics. The APS has a larger sample size than the LFS but is less timely.
We also use the monthly estimates of the ONS claimant count by age group. This can be found here: CLA02: Claimant Count by age group - Office for National Statistics. This administrative source shows us the number of young people who are currently in the intensive work search regime. This is for UC/JSA claimants who are unemployed or earning below the Administrative Earnings Threshold.
Another administrative data source we use, is the ONS-HMRC Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (RTI). This can be found here: Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, seasonally adjusted - Office for National Statistics. This is a monthly released administrative source of information, which tells us how many young people are currently employed on company payrolls.
We also use the departments own administrative data through the publicly available Stat Xplore. This can be found here: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. This service holds data relating to a range of different benefits/programmes for various age groups.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the challenges faced by his Department in implementing the youth guarantee trial across the West Midland Combined Authority area.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education continue to work closely with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) on the design and delivery of their Youth Guarantee Trailblazer. WMCA has actively engaged its seven Local Authorities as part of their Trailblazer design and have worked with central government to finalise their delivery plan and commence implementation.
The Trailblazer is testing place-based solutions to tackle high youth unemployment, economic inactivity, and declining apprenticeship opportunities. Examples of programmes being delivered include work experience placements, pre-apprenticeship training, and NEET prevention.
Delivery is progressing in line with the submitted plans, and WMCA remains a key partner in shaping the Youth Guarantee. Insights from the Trailblazer will inform future national policy and delivery.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of trends in the (a) response and (b) participation rates of Labour Market Force surveys.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP monitors a wide range of internal and external data – from management information, a range of surveys and administrative data sources - to inform its policymaking.
Actions taken to improve the quality of the ONS LFS data can be found here - Labour Force Survey quality update - Office for National Statistics
And information on the improvements to the sample size and response rate can be found here - Labour Force Survey performance and quality monitoring reports - Office for National Statistics
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the Office for National Statistics on the potential barriers to (a) monitoring and (b) collecting data on the number of 18-24 year olds who are not in education, employment or training.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Official statistics on the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training aged 18-24 years old are estimated using the Labour Force Survey – a large, nationally representative household survey.
These official statistics publications include:
DWP uses NEET Official Statistics estimated using the LFS alongside other data sources - such as administrative data from the benefit system like the youth claimant count and administrative data from the PAYE system of employees on payroll – to form a view of what is happening with young people in the labour market.
The ONS have faced challenges collecting data via the LFS. These challenges means that LFS-based labour market statistics are currently badged as Official Statistics in Development. As a result of the smaller survey participation rates, additional caution should be taken when interpreting results from the LFS since late 2023. This is transparently explained in Official Statistics publications from DfE and the ONS.
The ONS introduced an LFS recovery and sustainability in 2023/2024 and a wider Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan in 2025 to improve responses across the survey resulting in significant improvements to numbers interviewed since 2023. The latest update on actions taken by the ONS to recover the LFS sample and the latest response rates/sample sizes can be found in the following publications - Labour Force Survey quality update - Office for National Statistics and Labour Force Survey performance and quality monitoring reports - Office for National Statistics. These show that sample sizes have started to recover as a result of actions taken by the ONS.
At official level DWP regularly engages with ONS and DfE colleagues to help understand their data collection and statistics production; and to help improve the quality of the data and ensure it is useful for DWP’s business needs.
The ONS are transforming how they collect and produce LFS data to improve the quality of these statistics. One key aim of the TLFS is to develop it as an online-first multi-mode survey, to ensure it is as easy as possible for respondents to engage. Further information on the TLFS can be found here: Labour market transformation – update on progress and plans - Office for National Statistics. The publication of TLFS headline labour market statistics is currently scheduled for November 2026, although this may extend into 2027 if assessment of TLFS data quality requires more data to be collected and assessed before transition to using TLFS data as the basis from Labour Market Statistics.
DfE and ONS plan to continue using LFS/TLFS data to estimate the number of young people categorised as NEET.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the Office for National Statistics on the potential impact of trends in participation rates in the Labour Market Force on the accuracy of its estimates of the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Official statistics on the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training aged 18-24 years old are estimated using the Labour Force Survey – a large, nationally representative household survey.
These official statistics publications include:
DWP uses NEET Official Statistics estimated using the LFS alongside other data sources - such as administrative data from the benefit system like the youth claimant count and administrative data from the PAYE system of employees on payroll – to form a view of what is happening with young people in the labour market.
The ONS have faced challenges collecting data via the LFS. These challenges means that LFS-based labour market statistics are currently badged as Official Statistics in Development. As a result of the smaller survey participation rates, additional caution should be taken when interpreting results from the LFS since late 2023. This is transparently explained in Official Statistics publications from DfE and the ONS.
The ONS introduced an LFS recovery and sustainability in 2023/2024 and a wider Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan in 2025 to improve responses across the survey resulting in significant improvements to numbers interviewed since 2023. The latest update on actions taken by the ONS to recover the LFS sample and the latest response rates/sample sizes can be found in the following publications - Labour Force Survey quality update - Office for National Statistics and Labour Force Survey performance and quality monitoring reports - Office for National Statistics. These show that sample sizes have started to recover as a result of actions taken by the ONS.
At official level DWP regularly engages with ONS and DfE colleagues to help understand their data collection and statistics production; and to help improve the quality of the data and ensure it is useful for DWP’s business needs.
The ONS are transforming how they collect and produce LFS data to improve the quality of these statistics. One key aim of the TLFS is to develop it as an online-first multi-mode survey, to ensure it is as easy as possible for respondents to engage. Further information on the TLFS can be found here: Labour market transformation – update on progress and plans - Office for National Statistics. The publication of TLFS headline labour market statistics is currently scheduled for November 2026, although this may extend into 2027 if assessment of TLFS data quality requires more data to be collected and assessed before transition to using TLFS data as the basis from Labour Market Statistics.
DfE and ONS plan to continue using LFS/TLFS data to estimate the number of young people categorised as NEET.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to continue to use the Labour Market Force survey as the basis for estimating the number of people categorised as NEET.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Official statistics on the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training aged 18-24 years old are estimated using the Labour Force Survey – a large, nationally representative household survey.
These official statistics publications include:
DWP uses NEET Official Statistics estimated using the LFS alongside other data sources - such as administrative data from the benefit system like the youth claimant count and administrative data from the PAYE system of employees on payroll – to form a view of what is happening with young people in the labour market.
The ONS have faced challenges collecting data via the LFS. These challenges means that LFS-based labour market statistics are currently badged as Official Statistics in Development. As a result of the smaller survey participation rates, additional caution should be taken when interpreting results from the LFS since late 2023. This is transparently explained in Official Statistics publications from DfE and the ONS.
The ONS introduced an LFS recovery and sustainability in 2023/2024 and a wider Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan in 2025 to improve responses across the survey resulting in significant improvements to numbers interviewed since 2023. The latest update on actions taken by the ONS to recover the LFS sample and the latest response rates/sample sizes can be found in the following publications - Labour Force Survey quality update - Office for National Statistics and Labour Force Survey performance and quality monitoring reports - Office for National Statistics. These show that sample sizes have started to recover as a result of actions taken by the ONS.
At official level DWP regularly engages with ONS and DfE colleagues to help understand their data collection and statistics production; and to help improve the quality of the data and ensure it is useful for DWP’s business needs.
The ONS are transforming how they collect and produce LFS data to improve the quality of these statistics. One key aim of the TLFS is to develop it as an online-first multi-mode survey, to ensure it is as easy as possible for respondents to engage. Further information on the TLFS can be found here: Labour market transformation – update on progress and plans - Office for National Statistics. The publication of TLFS headline labour market statistics is currently scheduled for November 2026, although this may extend into 2027 if assessment of TLFS data quality requires more data to be collected and assessed before transition to using TLFS data as the basis from Labour Market Statistics.
DfE and ONS plan to continue using LFS/TLFS data to estimate the number of young people categorised as NEET.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of extending pensions automatic enrolment to jobholders under the age of 22 on those people.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
We are committed to ensuring people achieve financial security in later life.
That is why we prioritised the Pensions Investment Review and reforms in the Pension Schemes Bill – so that we can be confident savers automatically enrolled into workplace pension schemes can rightly enjoy the best possible outcomes.
Our assessment of the pensions system is that the job is only half finished. In August we published a detailed report with our analysis, including on Automatic Enrolment and those groups not benefitting from pensions or undersaving. Furthermore, we have revived the Pensions Commission to address these very matters of adequacy, fairness and sustainability, especially for lower earners.