Welfare

Bradley Thomas Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Bradley Thomas (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

Welfare can be, and is, a lifeline for so many. Yet among those who want to work—I am pleased that the Minister mentioned that there are lots of young people who do want to work—many cannot get on to the employment ladder, and there is a real danger that welfare then becomes a trap that can burden them for the rest of their life.

When I have travelled across my constituency over the last two years, since I was elected, I have heard a pretty universal message from young people and employers. I will start with the young people. I routinely have constituents email me expressing their despair at the fact that they cannot get a job. Often they are not even offered an interview after applying for hundreds of jobs. I have met a few of those young people, and it is really tough to listen to them because I see the despair and the despondency. They wonder what they can do to cut through. Is it them? Is it the fact that they have gone and got a degree that they feel might be worthless?

Conversely, when I speak with employers in my constituency, the theme is pretty universal, particularly among businesses in the hospitality sector—I mention hospitality because it is often the first rung on the employment ladder for so many young people. I have heard the same thing from so many of them: that ever since the Government increased the cost of employment, particularly the increase in national insurance contributions for young people, they have ceased recruiting. That is damning, because it does not mean that young people cannot get their foot on the ladder; it means that the first rung on the ladder has been cut out completely. The focus from Government has to be on how that step on the ladder can be re-established. That only comes from creating a thriving, fertile environment in which employers—those who create the jobs—are incentivised to provide those opportunities for young people.

There are young people out there who take risks, but they are few and far between because the cost of establishing a business is profound. I will mention two of those young people in my constituency, Sophie and Matt, who run a business called Toploaf, which I went to on Sunday after attending remembrance services. They are in their mid-20s and have established a thriving hospitality business in Bromsgrove. However, I know that they are worried about the increasing cost of doing business and terrified about the increasing cost of energy bills, and I was told that what the Government claimed was support in the Budget will not even provide any relief for them. Indeed, UK Hospitality cited a statistic when the Budget was released that only one in 10 businesses will benefit from the relief that the Government said they are providing.

If the Government want to provide people with the very best opportunities that do not restrict them to a lifetime on welfare, they have to support the wealth creators. Those wealth creators are not just the big corporates—every large business starts as a small business. All our constituencies contain hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of small businesses where people get up each day and do the right thing to create prosperity for themselves, the community and the young people they want to recruit.

The statistics are clear. We have 10.8 million working-age people not in work and 60,000 additional NEETs since 2024. According to the official statistics, between 2024, when the Government was elected, and 2032, the welfare bill is projected to grow by a staggering £57.7 billion. What does that do? If the welfare bill is growing but opportunities for economic prosperity are not, things go only in one direction, as the burden bears down even more heavily and increasingly on those who try to create the jobs for young people. In turn, that compounds the problem and further curtails the opportunities, and we see welfare dependency grow further and further.

The Government need to reverse the increase in employers national insurance and stop leaning into councils and local government as the sole arbiters of local economic prosperity. It is not that councils do not have a role to play, but the Government must, in the first instance, get off the backs of the businesses that create the jobs that allow our young people to get on in life.