Oral Answers to Questions

Yuan Yang Excerpts

Monday 8th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Dame Diana Johnson)]

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. The transformation of our jobs and career service will provide wraparound support to individuals who are looking for work or career development. We want to change the feel of jobcentres so that they are about supporting people, rather than having people go in just to comply with benefit conditions.

[Yuan Yang (Earley and Woodley) (Lab)]

T4.   Data from the millennium cohort study suggests that over half of cases of young people not in education, employment or training are attributable to persistent childhood poverty and adverse experiences. I recently visited Starting Point, a charity that helps young people in Reading back into work, and I heard about those people’s experiences. Does the Minister agree that there is a strong economic case behind the Government’s moral mission to cut childhood poverty?

[Dame Diana Johnson]

I absolutely agree. We all know that child poverty stifles opportunity, making it harder for children to succeed and get on in life. Nearly 1 million young people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training. We need to break that cycle, and we will do so through the child poverty strategy.