Tens of thousands of vulnerable young people could get “priority access” to cash payments and training to help them into work, under recommendations being drafted by the Government’s youth unemployment tsar.
Alan Milburn, the Labour grandee, is due to give his final recommendations on how to help young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) this autumn.
The cash support being considered for the most vulnerable 16-to-24-year-old Neets could come in the form of a taxpayer-funded benefit, grant or subsidy. This would be an option if Milburn’s recommendations are accepted by the Government.
Care leavers, young carers, teenage parents and young people leaving custody are considered the most vulnerable Neets and Milburn is understood to be considering urging they get “priority” help as part of any reforms.
Milburn told The i Paper he is particularly concerned about these groups as they are “most at risk” of falling off a “cliff edge” and into unemployment when they turn 18, when they lose the specialist support available to them as children.
“Turning 18 should be a moment when a young person gets more independence and more opportunity,” he said. “For too many, it is the moment when the support around them disappears overnight.”
“For these groups this birthday is a cliff edge and not a springboard into adulthood,” he said.
A Government spokesperson said it is committed to delivering “opportunity in every postcode,” which is why it commissioned Milburn to “look into the barriers to employment facing young people”.
The spokesperson added that “further reform will follow the conclusion of his review”.
On the day a young person turns 18, their support disappears: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, children’s social care, school support, and transport concessions all end. Adult services do not automatically kick in to catch them.
“We should not accept a system that is prepared to invest heavily in a young person when they are 17, then leave them to navigate adulthood alone at 18,” Milburn said.
“Education ends. Welfare support changes. Health services change. That is the cliff edge.”
Under Milburn’s recommendations, the most vulnerable Neets could also be assigned “a trusted adult” who would serve as a dedicated advisor offering continued guidance navigating complex adult support systems.
There are no exact figures for the total number of young people considered by Milburn to be vulnerable. Some 314,000 Neets aged 18 to 24 are thought to be unknown to the system because they don’t receive benefits.
According to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), there are approximately 81,770 children in England’s care system, a rise of almost 18 per cent since 2015. Similarly, the number of 16-to-24-year-olds with care responsibilities for a relative has also risen from an estimated 200,000 in 2014/2015 to 300,000 in 2024/2025.
Milburn’s interim report found that the Neet rate nearly trebles – from around 4 per cent to 13 per cent – when people turn 18.
He has cited the fact that support services “fragment”, and there is no institution responsible for making sure a young person stays on track, as a major reason for this.
For care leavers, this “cliff edge” is steeper still, according to Milburn’s research. Neet rates rise from 22 per cent at 17 to 31 per cent at 18 for this group. Just 22 per cent of care leavers are in work by the age of 27, compared with 57 per cent of their peers.
Research cited in Milburn’s interim report also shows that people who have been supervised by Youth Offending Teams are more than twice as likely to spend six months or more Neet. Similarly, having a child before the age of 21 more than doubles the likelihood of being Neet.
Andy Burnham has said that Britain must “get really serious” about the growing welfare bill. The UK’s total welfare and social security bill is around £333bn per year. A review of the conditions for disability benefits like personal independence payments (PIP) is also underway.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden also told The i Paper in June that the existing universal credit system was not fit for purpose, hinting that reforms could lead to all young Neets with an obligation to engage with work and support systems to get help.
This was during a trip to the Netherlands, which is being used as inspiration for the UK Government as its Neet rate is the lowest in Europe. The country offers financial assistance and holistic support to those who stay in school and training.
Reforming Britain’s benefits system will be a major test of Burnham’s premiership: an attempt to cut PIP under Sir Keir Starmer resulted in a mutiny of Labour backbenchers.
His review comes as the number of young Neets has surged: an estimated 1,012,000 – or 13.5 per cent of 16-to-24-year-olds- were Neet between January and March 2026, the first time the figure has exceeded one million since 2013.
Milburn has found that the way that support for vulnerable young people abruptly ends is part of the reason for high Neet rates in certain places.
This includes Blackpool, where the number of care leavers is high and the Neet rate, of 7.6 per cent, is nearly double the national average of 3.4 per cent. The i Paper understands that Milburn’s visits to such areas prompted the idea of giving vulnerable youths priority access to support upon turning 18.
How cash payments could look
Currently, young people can access benefits via universal credit. Burnham, McFadden and Milburn have all expressed concern that this system makes it too easy for Neets to be “signed off and written off”.
If Milburn does recommend a cash element to employment support for vulnerable young people, and it is accepted, the Government would need to work out how to deliver it.
It could work like the Youth Jobs Grant, which gives employers cash upfront when they hire a young person who has been unemployed for six months or more. Or it could be a subsidy, claimed back by employers.
The cash could take the form of a benefit, paid directly to an eligible young person identified by the state as in need. This is how the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), introduced by New Labour in 1999, operated.
‘As long as they need’
Milburn has made clear his view that the cessation of specialist support for young adults with complex needs or vulnerabilities was compounding inequality.
“Care leavers, young carers and teenage parents face greater Neet risks,” he said. “These are not young people who need less help because they have turned 18. So we need to look at whether we need to do something different for those young people most at risk.”
Financial insecurity is also a significant barrier for young adults, with apprenticeship and entry-level wages often insufficient to cover the costs of independent living.
Milburn said his review will “look at how we build a system that stays with young people for as long as they need it – especially those who have the least support to fall back on.”
A Government spokesperson said: “We are already taking action through our £2.5 billion investment in youth employment support, which will provide almost one million opportunities to earn or learn.”