Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what measures he will use to assess the success of the Youth Guarantee in reducing youth unemployment over the next five years.

The number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) has been rising for too long, which is why we are tackling this crisis of opportunity with new energy and determination.

At Budget the government announced that £820 million has been committed to the Youth Guarantee over the next three years to support all young people aged 16 to 24 to earn or learn. This includes the previously announced Jobs Guarantee, which is guaranteeing six-months of paid work for every eligible 18-21 year old who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for 18 months. Further details on the Youth Guarantee will be announced shortly.

We are also working with eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers across England which are testing innovative approaches to identify and deliver localised support to young people who are NEET or at risk of becoming NEET. We will use the learning from these Trailblazers to inform the future design and development of the Youth Guarantee as it rolls out across the rest of Great Britain. The Department will be commissioning an evaluation, starting in December 2025, which is expected to build evidence on the effectiveness of the programme at achieving employment outcomes, reducing levels of economic inactivity, increasing participation in education and training, and effectiveness of systems integration.