Summary
Overview
Alan Milburn, former New Labour cabinet minister, discusses his comprehensive review of Britain's NEET crisis - over 1 million young people aged 16-24 not in education, employment or training. He argues this represents a systemic failure requiring fundamental reform across welfare, education, health and labour market policy. The conversation explores why Britain has the second-worst NEET rate in Europe, the role of mental health diagnoses, AI's impact on youth employment, and the difficult policy choices ahead including welfare reform that will face political resistance.
The Scale and Nature of Britain's NEET Crisis
Britain faces an endemic youth detachment problem affecting approximately 1 million young people aged 16-24, representing one in eight of that population. This is fundamentally different from traditional youth unemployment - six in ten of these young people have never worked at all. The issue has persisted for 25 years with the NEET rate barely falling below 10%, but is now worsening and driven increasingly by mental health issues and labor market changes.
- Over 1 million young people aged 16-24 are NEETs (14% of that population), costing the economy enormously
- Britain has the second worst NEET rate in Europe - Ireland's rate is about half, Holland's is about a third
- Six in ten of these young people have never worked - this is youth detachment, not youth unemployment
- The NEET rate has barely been below 10% in 25 years, making this a chronic, endemic problem
" This is no longer about youth unemployment. This is about youth detachment. Six in ten of these young people have never worked. They've never had the chance to be unemployed because they've never been employed. "
" I talk about a lost generation and that is the real risk. If you've got a million young people potentially rising to a million and a quarter over the course of the next few years who've got no attachment either to the world of work or the world of learning, that is storing up a huge amount of problems for the future. "
The Moral Crisis - Not Just Economic
Milburn frames this as fundamentally a moral crisis for the country, not just a fiscal or economic one. The generational promise that each generation would do better than the last is being broken. This creates visceral fear among parents across all social classes - 15% of the million NEETs have degrees, 30% have five good GCSEs, meaning this is no longer a problem for 'other people's children' but for all our children. The system is ruinous for young people's life chances, which is why politics must deal with it.
- This is a moral crisis for the country, not just a fiscal or economic crisis
- 15% of the 1 million NEETs have degrees, 30% have five good GCSEs - this affects all social classes now
- The generational promise that each generation would do better than the last is being broken
- Parents have visceral fear about what's going to happen to the next generation - AI, mental health, housing ladder, first-time buyers in decline
" This is something going on in society that is a visceral, I was going to say concern, but it's bordering on a fear about what is going to happen to the next generation of young people. And that's more than about employment. It's about is AI going to eat all the jobs, what about the mental health crisis, can you get on the housing ladder. "
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