26 July 2010
Ministers are considering making young people on Jobseeker’s Allowance take part in education, training or job schemes, the Department for Education has said.
The government was responding to recommendations made in April by the children, schools and families select committee. It had called for ‘radical reform’ of the then government’s approach to young people not in education, employment or training – known as Neets. The committee cited the Netherlands, where benefits are dependent on participation in some form of career advancement scheme.
The DfE says it will consider whether the Netherlands example could be applied here. ‘The government has started a radical programme of welfare reform which will include the creation of a single Work Programme to provide greater personalised support and clear incentives to help young people get into work and off benefits altogether, alongside a restructuring of the welfare system that will make it simpler and more transparent so that work always pays,’ it says in its response.
‘As part of this process. we will look at the approach taken in the Netherlands to see what we can learn from their experience. In essence, the UK and Dutch governments share the same aims of getting young people off benefits and into full time work and reducing benefit dependency.’
It adds that there are differences between the countries’ benefits policy – specifically, that local authorities are responsible for distributing payments in the Netherlands.
The DfE’s latest figures show that 9.2% of 16–18 year olds were Neets at the end of 2009. This figure increases to 15.3% for the wider 16–24 age group.
