Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data his Department uses, other than the Labour Market Force survey, to estimate the population of people who are not in education, employment or training.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) uses multiple data sources to inform our view of how young people are performing in the labour market and whether young people are not in education, employment or training (NEET). These include statistics based on survey and administrative data sources.

The quarterly estimates for young people (aged 16-to-24 years) who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) in the UK can be found here: Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) - Office for National Statistics. This is an official statistic in development, which is used to inform our view of NEETs in the UK.

The Department for Education produces estimates of young people (aged 16 to 24 years old) who are NEET for England, which can be found here: NEET age 16 to 24, Calendar year 2024 - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK. This is an official statistic in development which is used to inform our view of NEETs in England. Currently, there is no Official Statistical release that shows the trends in 16–24-year-olds NEETs at the local level.

The Department for Education does produce a yearly release for those aged 16-17 at local authority level for England. This can be found here: Participation in education, training and NEET age 16 to 17 by local authority, Academic year 2024/25 - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK. This uses the National Client Caseload information system to estimate the number of 16–17-year-olds in England who are not in education, employment or training.

The ONS publish the educational status and labour market status for people aged from 16-24. This can be found here: A06 SA: Educational status and labour market status for people aged from 16 to 24 (seasonally adjusted) - Office for National Statistics. This is an official statistic in development, derived from the LFS and published monthly.

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is used to see youth labour market trends at various geographical levels. This can be access from here: Nomis - Official Census and Labour Market Statistics. The APS has a larger sample size than the LFS but is less timely.

We also use the monthly estimates of the ONS claimant count by age group. This can be found here: CLA02: Claimant Count by age group - Office for National Statistics. This administrative source shows us the number of young people who are currently in the intensive work search regime. This is for UC/JSA claimants who are unemployed or earning below the Administrative Earnings Threshold.

Another administrative data source we use, is the ONS-HMRC Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (RTI). This can be found here: Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, seasonally adjusted - Office for National Statistics. This is a monthly released administrative source of information, which tells us how many young people are currently employed on company payrolls.

We also use the departments own administrative data through the publicly available Stat Xplore. This can be found here: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. This service holds data relating to a range of different benefits/programmes for various age groups.