Working-age Welfare System

Baroness Stedman-Scott Excerpts

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

That is a really important question. The Government take a number of specific steps. For example, we know that some young care leavers find it hard to get into work, so we have people in jobcentres who are specialists in that area, who identify care leavers, work with them and give them extra support. There is help for them to get extra qualifications which they may not have. We have schemes about working with employers to employ care leavers. We have people who can help them develop at the next stage. Many of them get different levels of support in the benefits system depending on their circumstances. All that makes a difference, but in the end most of them are like other young people: they need an opportunity. We are now creating a range of things: a youth guarantee, support for those who need help, hiring centres for employers—and, if you are still there after 18 months, a guaranteed job for six months with this Government. That is the help people need.

[Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)]

My Lords, in September 2025, the leader of the Opposition, my right honourable friend Kemi Badenoch, offered the Government Conservative support for serious welfare reform in light of the warning that the cost of sickness benefit could rise to £100 billion by 2030. Will the Minister tell the House whether the new Prime Minister will take a different approach to that of his predecessor and work constructively with the Opposition to bring this rapidly rising and unaffordable welfare bill under control?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, I well remember the offer by the leader of the Opposition—long may she stay so—to support any sensible offer on social security. I am always open to discussing with the noble Baroness and others how we can do that. We both think very similarly about the importance of supporting young people, in particular, to go out there and get jobs. I have already described that dealing with young people is a decade-long challenge. This did not happen just recently—between 2021 and 2024, almost a quarter of a million young people became NEET. It is a job for all of us as a country—employers, the state, everyone—to get out there and support young people to get the jobs that they need.