The government has launched a major review into youth unemployment, tasking former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn with investigating the growing role of mental health and disability in the rise of economically inactive young people.
Nearly one million people aged 16 to 24 in the UK are currently not in education, employment or training (Neets) — a figure that has alarmed ministers and policymakers. Milburn’s review will explore how to prevent young people from becoming trapped outside work or education, with findings expected to be published next summer.
The announcement comes just days after the Mayfield Review, led by former John Lewis chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield, warned that “young adults” aged 16 to 34 were at the heart of Britain’s “economic inactivity crisis”. His report found that the number of 16- to 34-year-olds who are long-term sick and inactive due to mental health conditions has risen by 190,000 since 2019, a jump of 75 per cent.
Launching the review, Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, said the UK faced a “crisis of opportunity” among its younger generation.
“We cannot afford to lose a generation of young people to a life on benefits, with no work prospects and not enough hope,” he said. “This demands more action to give them the chance to learn or earn.”
The government is expected to unveil a “youth guarantee” in this month’s Budget — a policy that would promise paid work to young people who have been on universal credit for 18 months or more without finding employment or education.
The Department for Work and Pensions said Milburn’s review would make “practical recommendations” to help young people with health conditions access training, education or jobs, “ensuring they are supported to thrive, not sidelined.”
The initiative comes amid a series of government efforts to tackle long-term sickness and economic inactivity. It follows the Timms Review, which is currently examining personal independence payments (PIP) — the benefit covering the extra costs of physical and mental disabilities.
Milburn, who served as health secretary from 1999 to 2003 under Tony Blair and now acts as the lead non-executive director at the Department of Health and Social Care, said his review would be “uncompromising in exposing failures” across employment, education and welfare systems.
“I will produce far-reaching recommendations for change to enhance opportunities for young people to learn and earn,” he said.
The surge in young people unable to work due to mental health problems has become one of the most pressing challenges facing the government. Economists warn that rising inactivity is eroding productivity and weighing on growth.
While successive governments have published reports diagnosing the problem, few have managed to reverse the trend. Critics say underfunded mental health services, combined with the pressures of insecure work and high living costs, have created a generation increasingly detached from the labour market.
Milburn’s findings are expected to feed directly into Rachel Reeves’s forthcoming Budget, which will include new spending pledges aimed at reducing inactivity and boosting youth employment.
The hope in Whitehall is that this review — combining insight from both the health and work sectors — will finally produce a joined-up plan to bring Britain’s lost young workers back into the economy.
