UK needs a 'better response to anxiety' than 'just giving people benefits,' insists Pat McFadden amid plans to cut youth unemployment
Ministers have announced an £820 million package aimed at helping almost one million get off benefits and into work
Pat McFadden has insisted that the government must "have a better response to anxiety than just giving people benefits" amid government plans to invest £820m in a bid to curb youth unemployment.
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Speaking with Lewis Goodall on Sunday on the subject of NEETS - individuals not in education, employment or training - the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions refused to comment on suggestions plans were afoot to cut benefits as a result.
Highlighting government plans to curb youth unemployment, Mr McFadden told LBC the government was set to offer 300,000 training places to help get young people into work.
Highlighting that more than half the people on unemployment benefits have been on them for more than 15 years, Mr McFadden said that "changing peoples' life stories" should be a priority and "not just a spreadsheet".
"I don't want to play amateur doctor," Mr McFadden insisted, amid suggestions changes need to be made to the awarding of benefits around mental health.
It comes as it was announced the government is set to spend £820m on helping almost one million people get off benefits and into work.
In response to one LBC caller who highlighted that he had applied to more than 80 jobs without success, Mr McFadden conceded that there are some "deep-seated things going on in the labour market".
The money put forward by the government includes funding for training and work experience in construction, hospitality, and health and social care for 350,000 young people on universal credit.
Others will be offered “intensive support” to help them find work, while Government-backed guaranteed jobs will be provided for up to 55,000 young people from spring 2026.
But those that refuse to engage with the help on offer without a good reason could lose some of their benefits.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said: “Every young person deserves a fair chance to succeed. When given the right support and opportunities, they will grasp them."
The Labour MP for Wolverhampton South East continued: "We're spending too much just keeping body and soul together for some people - and not changing the story of their life.
"I don't want to play amateur doctor and ask what you have or don't have - what should the response of the benefits system be - it shouldn't be writing people off.
'Whitehall has to get out of the departmental thing," he added, insisting the government spends "too much on failure".
The extra funding comes amid a rise in “Neets”, 16-24-year-olds not in employment, education or training.
Some 940,000 young people are now considered Neet, a rise of 195,000 in the last two years driven mainly by increasing rates of sickness and disability.
And the Resolution Foundation has warned that the figure is on course to reach one million for the first time since the aftermath of the financial crisis, when it peaked at 1.2 million in 2012.
Former health secretary Alan Milburn has been asked to carry out a review of the rising number of Neet young people that will shape further reforms to health and welfare.
Mr McFadden said the new funding was “a downpayment on young people’s futures and the future of the country, creating real pathways into good jobs and providing work experience, skills training and guaranteed employment”.
Further plans for young people are expected to be set out in the coming week as the Government prepares to publish its national youth strategy.
Conservative shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said: “The Chancellor’s tax hikes are driving up youth unemployment, snatching a career from a generation of young people; this scheme is nothing more than taking with one hand to give with the other.
“This is an admission that the Government has no plan for growth, no plan to create real jobs, and no way of measuring whether any of this money delivers results.
“Ministers cannot say what the roles are, who the employers will be, or how many will still exist once the funding ends.”