Get emergency foodThe interim Milburn Review report has captured what young people facing hardship from across the UK repeatedly tell us. Inadequate mental health support, low-incomes, unaffordable housing and a challenging labour market are driving hardship and creating major barriers to work.[i] Between 2019 and 2025, there was a 53% increase in the number of food parcels provided by food banks in the Trussell community for 17-24 year olds.[ii]
The government is right to be prioritising this issue and we welcome Milburn’s calls for a multi system response. A key part of this will be improving employment support for young people, and the government is already making welcome investments. But there is further to go to support people with more complex barriers to work into good, sustainable employment.
In contrast, suggestions that access to financial support from our social security system is somehow driving this problem are misguided. More young people needing to access financial support is not a failure of social security in and of itself. Our social security system should be there for us all when we need it.
Instead, as the Milburn report sets out, the increase in young people needing social security indicates problems in wider systems – our health system, labour market and education system. If we can support more young people to navigate mental health challenges, improve their education and provide employment support that reflects the changing labour market and the specific barriers to work they face, then fewer people will need to turn to Universal Credit.
Every day at Trussell we see how severe hardship worsens mental health, knocks confidence and creates barriers to participation. The Milburn review also acknowledges that poverty and inequality are risk factors for falling out of education, employment or training.
The climbing number of young people that are not earning or learning is beginning to reveal the scarring impact that poverty has had on our country. For more than a decade the erosion of social security support has contributed to rising child poverty levels, with nearly 900,000 more children living in poverty in 2023/24 compared to 2010/11.[iii]
Upcoming insight from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, including analysis of the UK Millennium Cohort Study will show that young people who grow up experiencing persistent poverty are over three times more likely not to be in education, employment or training at 17 or 23.[iv] This suggests the rising child poverty that we saw over the last 13 years, substantially driven by cuts to social security, may have played a role in the rise young people not in education employment or training (NEET).
Any social security cuts or restrictions in eligibility will increase financial hardship and risk even worse outcomes for young people. The support offered by Universal Credit already fails to cover the cost of essentials such as food and energy bills. And the ongoing freeze to Local Housing Allowance rates means the gap between the financial support available and the actual cost of rent is ever increasing, driving more renters into hardship and homelessness. For under 25s, the support offered is even lower – creating major barriers to work, due to the mental health impacts of hardship and struggling to pay for transport or to live independently.
This is particularly the case for disabled young people who face unavoidable higher costs, significant barriers to work, and are already overrepresented at food banks. A third (32%) of young people referred to food banks report that they cannot work due to a health condition. A further 23% report struggling to find work that is compatible with their health condition.[v]
Providing financial security for young people and preventing longer term economic inactivity are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are closely linked; ensuring young people can afford the essentials and pay for the additional costs of disability is crucial for enabling engagement.
Ultimately, reducing the number of people locked out of participation will not be achieved by cuts, but by timely access to healthcare, more accessible employment opportunities and genuine improvements to employment support.
We will continue to make the case that Milburn’s review should urge the government to focus on the drivers of hardship among young people, and on putting the right support in place to enable them to move forward with their lives. This should include:
- Continuing to invest in and pilot specialist, tailored employment support, and flexible job seeking rules that recognise the barriers to work young people face, build trust and increase engagement.
- Taking further steps to ensure our social security system provides enough for everyone to afford the essentials when we need it, including steps towards an Essentials Guarantee within Universal Credit, ending the freeze on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) and permanently linking LHA to changes in rents.
- Safeguarding young people’s incomes by avoiding measures that cut social security for under 22s.