Burnham aims for ‘quite radical change’ in support for young people

Prime minister says ‘root and branch review of childhood’ is needed and he does not rule out some benefit cuts

The government is aiming for “quite radical change” in the way young people are supported, Andy Burnham has said, indicating this could include tougher rules for benefits as well as notably more help with everything from finding work to mental health.

In media interviews before the release of the second report by the former minister Alan Milburn on reducing the numbers of young people not in work, education or training, Burnham said his mission was “rethinking childhood” from the early years onwards.

Milburn’s review, due to be published this month, will call for ambitious efforts to help young people get jobs and training, and is expected to recommend moves to limit access to some benefits for people who refuse to engage.

The first part of his review, published in May and intended to set out the scale of the problem, said about one in eight young people – 1 million – were not working or in training. It blamed a series of largely structural factors, including inequality, the modern labour market and mental health.

This was “an issue of huge societal importance”, Burnham said in one of the interviews, with Times Radio. “If you leave young people in their 20s without hope, that is a dangerous thing to do,” he said. “People need to have a path. And I think if we look to the roots of this, I don’t think we have done enough to support young people growing up in a very different world to the one that many of us grew up in. The support hasn’t been there.”

He said Milburn’s report was not “a narrow consideration of just the benefits system … It’s got to be a root and branch review of childhood and how we support young people on their way in life.”

Asked if this could involve cutting some benefits, he replied: “I am prepared to take difficult decisions because I can’t accept the idea that we have a million or more young people in their 20s on benefits. It’s not good for them. It’s not good for anybody. So there does need to be quite radical change in the way we support young people.”

Likening the idea to the proposal to change the triple-lock system of guaranteed pension increases while at the same time bringing in a new system for adult social care, Burnham said the reappraisal of young people’s opportunities would begin in early years.

He said: “Too many young people are not school-ready when they come to school. And the evidence is many don’t catch up. If they’re not ready to learn in reception class, that gap stays all the way through the school system. So it’s part of this. It is about rethinking childhood, in every aspect of it.”

In a separate interview with the BBC, Burnham said he could not promise when the overall benefits bill would start to decrease, as there was a need to invest. “What will have to go up first is the spending on support for young people,” he said, noting this may mean having to “reprioritise” some money. But he said the overall bill would go down in time.

Asked if this would happen in this parliament, he said: “You do it in a way that’s sustainable. And if it could be this parliament – as soon as possible is the thing I would say to you.”