Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Josh MacAlister and Andrew Western

Monday 17th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Josh MacAlister (Whitehaven and Workington) (Lab)]

18. What steps her Department is taking to support care leavers into employment.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Andrew Western)]

The Department supports care leavers aged 16 to 24 through an extensive range of interventions to help them into employment. For example, care leavers who start an apprenticeship are signposted to a £3,000 bursary from their training provider, and they can still receive universal credit if they are on a low income. More broadly, under the new youth guarantee, all young people aged 18 to 21 in England, including care leavers, will have access to support to enter employment, education or training opportunities.

[Josh MacAlister]

Some 39% of care-experienced young people are not in education, employment or training—three times the average rate—and that is costing the UK over £145 million a year in lost tax revenue alone. We cannot achieve the ambition of getting Britain working unless we unlock the potential of this amazing group of young people. Do Ministers agree that we need to take bold, imaginative action to radically improve the number going into work?

[Andrew Western]

My hon. Friend is absolutely correct to highlight those statistics. The number of care leavers not in education, employment or training is absolutely unacceptable, and he will be stunned to hear that I am in full agreement with him.