Milburn wants a legal right to work or training for every young person

Alan Milburn wants the state to owe every young person a shot at work. The former Labour minister, whose review of youth unemployment lands on Tuesday, told the BBC that under-25s should get a legally guaranteed job, training place or employment support — and that refusing the help could cost them benefits.

Milburn calls it an 'opportunity guarantee', modelled on the legal duties councils already carry to house homeless people or look after children in care. He argues past employment schemes were temporary fixes, and only a permanent legal entitlement can crack the long-running problem of young people not in education, employment or training. 'It should be a guarantee for a young person,' he said. 'Because at the moment the only guarantee they've got is a very simple thing. To get a benefit. What sort of life is that?' The full interview airs Sunday.

The money is the flashpoint. Milburn says benefit spending on young people runs at 25 times the level of employment support, and he wants that narrowed to two-to-one — which means paying out less in benefits and putting significantly more taxpayers' cash into training and education. He points to the £22bn a year the government already spends on economically inactive young people and says it needs to be spent differently. He has also said under-25s should lose access to personal independence payment and the health element of Universal Credit.

Almost one million UK young people are Neet, according to the latest Office for National Statistics figures. The government is expected to broadly welcome the proposals, with a statement in Parliament and draft laws early next year. Prime Minister Andy Burnham called the report a 'watershed moment' but refused a 'blanket assurance' that he would adopt it wholesale. Pressed in Dublin on Thursday, he said paying for it would not mean 'more money' but 'spending differently'.

Opposition is already forming. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said the government should not burn 'lots of time' on employment schemes she expects to fail, and both her party and Reform UK want deep welfare cuts — partly to fund a defence boost. Reform economy spokesman Robert Jenrick said the review is 'pointless unless we get action from Burnham straight away', warning it 'cannot be right' to wait another decade for the youth benefits bill to fall.

The smaller parties have their own offers. The Liberal Democrats want a 100-hour work experience guarantee and a careers coach for every young person, saying that would sharpen their skills before they leave school. The Greens warn against 'demonising' young and disabled people, and want the government to tackle what they call the structural inequalities stacked against them.