Dealing with the cost of living is essential to help young people out of Britain’s NEETs crisis

Can you imagine the difficulty of wanting to work or start an apprenticeship but knowing that doing so would leave you or your family worse off?

For years this was the case for some of the most disadvantaged young people in our society – who were structurally locked out of work by the rules around universal credit and housing benefit. But it’s not just the benefits system that presents barriers, the cost of living crisis has meant that for many the costs of finding and starting a job are preventing them from entering the workplace.

The government has begun to right some of these wrongs, by changing the benefit rules that punish young people in supported accommodation or living with families on universal credit for seeking work.  But to address the problem of young people being unable to find work, they must go further. There are many, often interlocking, barriers that have contributed to almost one million 16–24 year olds being out of work or training.

The main point to bear in mind here is young people want to work. The government-commissioned Milburn review  found that 84% of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET), want to be in work or training. A whole generation has been let down by successive governments that have failed to acknowledge the realities experienced by young people, especially those from low-income households.

The cost of living has created additional barriers for the most disadvantaged young people and persistently rising prices are shutting increasing numbers of young people out of opportunities. There is a price to applying for jobs or engaging in work and training. A training course may be free, but travel costs might be insurmountable, an employment contract may be offered but the hard hat and tools are a price too high. Around one in five young people who are considered NEET do not have access to a laptop or stable internet connection blocking them from even applying for roles.

It’s often the young people who have had the hardest start in life that experience these barriers most acutely. Action for Children found one in four young people who have experienced care lack access to work-appropriate clothing, and public transport is inaccessible for the same proportion. For too long, government has overlooked young people’s inability to access the basics needed to get going, leaving cash-strapped youth organisations to pick up the pieces.

One area where we’ve seen some positive changes on these prohibitive costs is transport. The government’s £2 bus fare cap signals recognition that the unaffordability of life’s necessities is preventing people from participating in society. But even a £2 fare can be a cost-barrier too steep for young people.

Read more:

• NEET numbers fall but young people still face jobs crisis: ‘This is not a turning point’
• NEETs crisis: How did one million young people fall off the career ladder?
• ‘Everyone wants a job and it’s a nightmare’: What it’s like to be a NEET young person in Britain

We spoke with Rise Up UK, a youth employment charity, who illustrated the human impact of transport poverty: one participant in Kent was prepared to walk one and a half hours each way to training because he had no bus fare, until the organisation stepped in to fund his transport. Westminster should look north (further north than Manchester) and take inspiration from Scotland where under-22s already travel free.

Buses are essential for physical and social mobility. Outside London the lowest-income 40% of households travel twice as far by bus as the highest-income 40% of households. Yet over the past decade the number of buses on Britain’s roads has dropped by over 6,500 (16%). Making sure everyone has a decent bus service, wherever they live, is a crucial part of the answer.

Providing free bus travel for under-25s would disproportionately benefit young people who need it most. But to give all young people a fighting chance, the government must also introduce a national participation support package to enable training and work, combining transport support, equipment grants, and childcare support.

Our research has highlighted other barriers to entering the workforce. It is no surprise that deindustrialised and peripheral communities which have suffered from underinvestment and neglect by the state are amongst the regions with the highest proportion of young people who are NEET.

Young people cannot work where jobs do not exist. Previous NEF research found that in local authorities like Rotherham, Hartlepool and Pendle, for every 100 UC claimants there are just five job vacancies available. In many parts of the country, there simply are not enough jobs for the number of people out of work.

The government already has the policy tools to address this lack of opportunity – paid employment opportunities like the job guarantee – and these must be rapidly expanded to meet the actual scale of the challenge. But these measures must come alongside financial support for the costs associated with getting started, like protective gear, to make sure young people can afford to take that first step. This will go a long way to avert a looming catastrophe for young people today and ensure that, no matter where they live, they have a genuine shot at work.

Kamran Malekzai is an assistant researcher at New Economics Foundation

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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