Benefits: EU Nationals

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts

Monday 7th November 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, we have had this discussion during the Committee stage of the Welfare Reform Bill and I have made it absolutely clear that I am not going to comment on that particular question in any way.

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean]

My Lords, can my noble friend comment on the fact that EU law requires equal treatment between citizens of member states, but not within member states? So we have the absurd position in Scotland, for example, where English, Welsh and Irish residents have to pay university fees of £36,000 while for Scottish students, along with French, German, Italian and other European students, they are free. Is that not grossly unfair and should not the law be changed so that residents in other parts of the United Kingdom are treated in the same way as EU citizens?

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, I am being taken well off my brief which is concerned with benefits, so I will not comment on that question either.

Unemployment

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts

Wednesday 26th January 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, the figures for unemployment among young people aged 16 to 24 have risen with the recession and have been broadly flat from around the middle of 2009. They are still too high at 951,000 but they have been broadly flat in that period. However, I am worried about the number of NEETS in this country, which rose over the period of the previous Government by 250,000 to 1.4 million. That is a serious, long-term structural issue, and we have long-term structural plans to sort it out.

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean]

My Lords, will the Minister confirm that despite the huge sums of money that were spent by the previous Government, he has inherited the worst legacy of youth unemployment that any Government have inherited in our recent history?

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, I confirm that I am very worried about the situation in respect of NEETs, which is underlying and structural, as I said. We have now transformed the programmes to do something about it. We are introducing the work programme in the middle of this year, and we are also transforming the nature of provision in Jobcentre Plus, making it far more flexible and designed to look after people as individuals rather than in broad groups based on their benefit, as has been the case.