Youth Unemployment

Debate between Lauren Edwards and Pat McFadden

Tuesday 17th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Pat McFadden]

I thank my hon. Friend and parliamentary neighbour for her question. I know Asda in Great Bridge. What a wonderful employment rate that is, after the programme. It gives hope to young people with learning disabilities, who should never be written off; there has been too much of that in the past. Part of our work is to get more help and support to young people with disabilities, in order to give them the confidence and the opportunity that a job can bring.

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. As someone who represents an area where more than 90% of businesses are SMEs, I particularly welcome the financial incentives for SMEs to take on young apprentices in the key industries of hospitality and retail. Demand for apprenticeships has been high for some time, so I welcome the Government’s recognition that supply-side incentives were needed to provide opportunities for young people in areas like mine. However, SMEs lack HR departments, and when I speak to business owners, they talk a lot about the complexity of engaging with the system. How will the Secretary of State make the system simpler for SMEs to engage with, so that we can give young people the opportunities that they desperately need?

[Pat McFadden]

My hon. Friend is right that we have tried to put extra incentives in this package for small and medium-sized businesses. In particular, there is the hiring bonus for young apprentices, which is aimed at both young people and small businesses. I hope that will be of help to the small businesses in her constituency. She is also right that clarity of information is important. Schemes like this can be complex, so I want to work with officials to make the information about this one, and the administration of it, as clear and simple as possible—consistent, of course, with the need to properly use and protect public money.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lauren Edwards and Pat McFadden

Monday 9th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Pat McFadden]

I congratulate the business club—such organisations play a valuable role in our constituencies. The hon. Lady asks what measures we are taking, and I am grateful to the Chancellor for the extra funding made available in the Budget for the youth guarantee. That will gives hundreds of thousands more training and work experience places to young people and, importantly, will provide funding for the long-term youth unemployed to gain six months’ work, paid at the national minimum wage for 25 hours a week, so that young people get used to the discipline and duty of turning up, doing a job, and experiencing the sense of pride and purpose that comes with having a job.

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

Net migration has fallen to the lowest level since 2021, which will have a significant impact on our labour market and economy if we do not train and support unemployed people in the UK into jobs in key sectors. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to target back-to-work programmes, especially those for young people who are not in work, education or training, to fill skills shortages in crucial areas such as health and social care?

[Pat McFadden]

My hon. Friend asks an excellent question. The fact that net migration is falling to lower levels than we have seen for some time gives added urgency to a question that has often been posed: why do we not do more to train our own workers? That is precisely why I am prioritising youth apprenticeship starts, which fell by 40% under the previous Government. We must arrest that decline and ensure that we respond to the new situation of falling levels of net migration by training more of our own young people.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lauren Edwards and Pat McFadden

Monday 8th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Pat McFadden]

The hon. Gentleman will find that the welfare budget had risen three times as fast as a proportion of GDP as it is projected to rise under this Government. We have begun to make changes through the reform to universal credit—that is more change in the system than his party introduced in many years—and, critically, to employment support for both the long-term sick and disabled and the young unemployed.

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

Around 600 young people in Rochester and Strood are claiming unemployment benefits; many more are NEETs—not in education, employment or training—and are not known to the Department for Work and Pensions. Does the Minister agree that the best way to improve their futures and reduce the welfare bill in the long term is through targeted support programmes, such as the youth guarantee, which will get them into good, stable jobs and off benefits?

[Pat McFadden]

We have a very different approach to the issue of NEETs from the Conservative party. We are not going to sit and look at the graph rise year by year without offering young people hope and aspiration for the future. That is why we brought forward a package, with £800 million of backing, to offer training or work to the young unemployed, and ensure that they have options in life rather than a life on benefits.