Government Record on Education, Employment and Welfare

Lord John of Southwark Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord John of Southwark (Lab)]

My Lords, when I saw that the noble Baroness, Lady Evans, had put this subject down for a debate today, for which I thank her, I thought I should take a look at the statistics to examine whether I had missed a particularly bad report on education or employment. I was reassured to learn that GCSE and A-level grades in 2025 were slightly better than in 2024 and that, while our employment rates have fractionally decreased over the past two years, the number of those classed as economically inactive had also fallen by over one percentage point. Looking at welfare, the latest ONS data suggests that the number of people claiming out-of-work benefits is just over 30,000 higher than in July 2024, but sadly, we find that there has been a significant increase in the number of people claiming universal credit. However, that increase also came at the same time that working tax credits came to an end and those claimants were shifted to universal credit.

My view is that we sometimes get the language around welfare wrong. Moving from a system of working tax credits, predicated on support for those in work, to universal credit, which perhaps suggests a life supported by government, was a serious mistake. I ask the Minister to think carefully about how the Government can better use language to make this kind of government financial support once again appear more supportive of the notion of a hand up to those on low pay.

I do not share the nihilistic view of the subject matter of this debate of some noble Lords opposite. Perhaps the most worrying figure today is the number of young people, 16 to 24 year-olds, who are not in education, employment or training. There have always been NEETs; they were not created or invented in July 2024. But it seems to be a post-Covid phenomenon that we have reached 1 million of them at this time.

I am reassured by the preliminary report of Alan Milburn and the response of Pat McFadden, the Secretary of State, who have rightly focused our attention on what we need to do. It is ludicrous that we spend only £1 on helping a NEET into work for every £25 we give them in benefits. Sometimes we need to invest to save, and to give hope to those younger people who are entering a very different world of work with the challenges of the gig economy and AI.

The noble Lord, Lord Willetts, talked about employability schemes. It is important to recognise the work of organisations such as the Old Vic Theatre, of which I am a trustee, which run employability schemes. Take the Lead and Front Line help over 1,000 young people each year with basic employability; that is commendable for a charity, the Old Vic, and others like it.

The final version of the Milburn review is due in September, but the work has already begun to make it a central mission of this Labour Government to reduce the number of NEETs and create a workforce fit for our times. I know that will not change on Monday or Tuesday next week. I suppose the clue is in the name, but I am reassured that this is a Labour Government who care about labour.