Young people are doing everything right and getting nowhere, writes James Hanson

Among the many significant findings in Alan Milburn’s review into so-called NEETs, the 16 to 24-year-olds not in employment, education or training, perhaps the most notable was his refusal to pin the blame on young people themselves.

In fact, he specifically rejected the claim that Gen Z are simply “softer, flakier, less resilient, more willing to blame mental health than actually suffer from it.”

Instead, he said “the shortage is of opportunity and of support.” Here, here!

I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to hear a baby boomer like Milburn refuse to indulge in the tired old trope that today’s young people are a bunch of oversensitive wet wipes.

On my LBC show, we focus a lot on issues of inter-generational unfairness. As a 33-year-old, it’s something I care about deeply, but my main concern is for the generation below me, especially those leaving school or university and attempting to enter the world of work for the first time.

Last weekend, I spoke to 22-year-old Shiva Chandorkar. He graduated from King’s College London, one of the UK’s best universities, in 2024, but has since been rejected for more than 270 jobs. An army reservist in his spare time, he is as far removed from the stereotypical workshy wastrel as it is possible to be.

In a healthy economy, he ought to be the type of graduate that employers are queuing up to hire. And yet, time and again, his applications have been unsuccessful, often without a single piece of feedback.

Except for the generation brought up during the war, no one alive in Britain today has endured a tougher upbringing than Gen Z. Their education and social development were severely disrupted by the Covid pandemic, during which schools remained closed for an absurdly excessive period of time.

Having been pressured to pursue university, graduates now leave with, at best, five figures and, at worst, six figures of student debt. With rising youth unemployment, many will then struggle to find an entry-level job. And even if they do, sky-high rents and unaffordable deposits make getting a foot on the housing ladder a pipe dream. No wonder there’s a mental health crisis among young people!

Sadly, modern Britain has been constructed by the boomers, for the boomers. Those born between 1946 and 1964 are the richest generation in UK history, which I do not begrudge. What I do resent is how they’ll be the first generation in living memory to enjoy a higher standard of living than their children, and yet any attempt to balance the playing field is met with howls of outrage.

Look at the backlash to Labour’s attempt to remove winter fuel payments from those who didn’t need them. Or the complete refusal of mainstream parties to advocate for scrapping the triple lock. When one in four pensioners is a millionaire, perhaps it’s time we start prioritising young people instead.

If we don’t, we are setting ourselves up to fail. Who’s going to fund the state pension if young people aren’t in work and paying tax? Who’s going to work in our public services if graduates are voting with their feet and moving abroad for better opportunities? And how will we ever reverse Britain’s falling birth rate when young people can barely afford to exist on their own, let alone with a child?

There is no silver bullet to fix the Neets crisis, but you cannot resolve a problem until you accept there is one. With any luck, Alan Milburn’s fellow boomers will heed his words and concede that young people themselves are not to blame. The real snowflakes are those among the older generation who refuse to level the playing field.

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Listen to James Hanson on LBC on weekends between 4 and 7am.

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