Youth Unemployment

Lord Londesborough Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

As the noble Lord knows, and as was the case under the previous Government and from the time that the Low Pay Commission was set up, we explicitly asked the commission to consider the implications on employment of recommendations around increases in the living wage. We will continue to do that so that we can both make progress on getting young people back into work and ensure that they are fairly rewarded when they are there.

[Lord Londesborough (CB)]

My Lords, I appreciate that the Government’s youth guarantee scheme is well intentioned, but would it not be more effective if it applied to those 18 to 21 year-olds who have been out of work and education for six months rather than 18 months—by which time many will have lost hope and confidence, and may have, in effect, checked out? I know from my experience as an employer that the earlier that you hire the young, both skilled and unskilled, the greater the chance of success. Does the Minister agree?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Lord is talking about the Government’s job guarantee, which will come in after 18 months with a guaranteed job for all those on universal credit. However, it is not the case that there is no action under the youth guarantee before that. The new youth guarantee gateway will ensure that if, after 13 weeks, a young person is not earning or learning then they will have a meeting followed by four weeks of intensive support. During this period, they will receive tailored guidance and be offered up to six options, which could be work, work experience, sector-based work academy programmes, apprenticeships, training or learning. There will be 300,000 more opportunities funded by this Government to support young people long before they get to that 18-month point. However, that point is a guaranteed jobs backstop.