Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit claimants aged 18 to 24 had no record of paid employment since leaving full-time education, in each of the last three years.

The Department for Work and Pensions does not hold statistics on the number of Universal Credit claimants aged 18 to 24 who have had no record of paid employment since leaving full-time education. The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

In their most recent figures, The Office of National Statistics estimated that there were 981,000 young people aged 16 to 24 years in the UK who were not in education, employment or training in April to June 2026.

This Government will not leave an entire generation of young people behind. The Government is investing an additional £2.5 billion by 2029 into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy, supporting almost one million young people and creating up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn.