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There has been a sharp rise in the number of jobless young people in the UK citing health problems as the reason they are not working, according to analysis.
The share of 16- to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training – known as Neets – who reported a work-limiting condition has surged by 70% in a decade, a charity thinktank found.
The trend is potentially putting the generation “at even greater risk of harm to their future opportunities”, the Health Foundation said.
The findings are published as the government announces a youth employment drive and overhaul of apprenticeships.
Among the initiatives to be rolled out by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are a youth jobs grant, through which UK businesses will receive £3,000 for every young person they hire aged 18 to 24 who has been on universal credit and looking for work for six months, and an apprenticeship incentive of £2,000 for each new employee aged 16 to 24 taken on by a small- and medium-sized enterprise.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of Neets aged 16 to 24 was 957,000 in the three months from October to December – up from 946,000 in the previous quarter.
Announcing the changes in a speech on Monday, the work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden, will point to a statistic that shows a person under 25 on universal credit is less likely to get a job than someone aged over 55 on the same benefit.
“Today the biggest issues facing the system are the challenges of youth unemployment and the growing number of people on long-term sickness and disability benefits,” he will say. “The number of young people not in education, employment or training is much too high at almost a million. Almost all of the recent rise took place before the last election.
“And within it the proportion of Neets who are sick or disabled has doubled in the past decade and is now 46% of the total. Acting on this should be a cause that motivates us all. The human cost is a tragedy. The waste of potential appalling. And the financial cost enormous.”
The Health Foundation said the “changing health landscape means yesterday’s solutions might not be enough for today’s young people”.
Research by the thinktank found that between 2015 and 2025, the share of Neets who reported conditions that stopped them from working increased from 26% to 44%. This represents a rise of 70%, the Health Foundation said.
Last year, more than two-thirds of Neets who cited health issues as a barrier to work did so because of mental health problems and autism.
However, the Health Foundation said health problems were not exclusive to Neets. It said that in the past 10 years, the share of all 16- to 24-year-olds reporting ill health as a barrier to work increased from 9% to 16%, a rise of 78%.
Sam Atwell, a policy and research manager in the healthy lives team at the Health Foundation, said: “There’s been a lot of attention on the growing number of young people who are neither learning nor earning. But our analysis shows the problem runs deeper. More Neet young people are reporting health problems, potentially putting this generation at even greater risk of harm to their future opportunities.”
Other changes to be announced by McFadden include the expansion of the jobs guarantee to a wider age range of 18 to 24, from 18 to 21, and further overhauls to the growth and skills levy to prioritise young apprentices.
The changes are backed by an additional £1bn, taking the total investment into the youth guarantee and the additional investment in the growth and skills levy to £2.5bn over the next three years, the DWP said.
A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to ensuring every young person has the opportunity to earn or learn. “That’s why we are providing almost £1bn of additional investment to support young people, helping to create 200,000 jobs and taking the total to £2.5bn.
“For those young people being held back by health conditions, we are also investing £3.5bn by the end of the decade to help them back into the workplace.”
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