Work and Pensions Committee launches new inquiry on tackling youth NEET crisis

The cross-party Work and Pensions Committee has launched a new inquiry examining the causes and impacts of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) and measures to fix it.

Tackling the NEET challenge for people under-25 is a priority for the Government after youth unemployment hit 15.3%, its highest point in the last decade outside the pandemic and five times higher than the rate across the workforce. Overall, the number of young people who are not in employment, education or training has increased 50% over the last 5 years to 946,000.

In response, the Government has launched several initiatives to try to combat the problem. These include the Youth Guarantee, which aims to ensure young people out of work for 18 months are given a 6-month placement in construction, care or hospitality, and to double the number of Youth Hubs. The Government has announced £725 million of funding it says will help deliver 50,000 more quality apprenticeships. As part of the plans, apprenticeship costs for people under-25 to small and medium-sized businesses will be shouldered by the DWP. Last month, an independent review into young NEETs led by Alan Milburn was launched. The Committee's inquiry will complement this work.

Young people are also disproportionately exposed to job losses. Almost half of the job losses since June 2024 have been among under-25s.

The pipeline of new jobs for young people has also narrowed. AI is expected to take up more entry-level tasks and the number of retail and hospitality jobs – traditionally employing many young people – has declined.

The Government has also attributed the causes of rising NEET levels to “disrupted learning during the pandemic, underinvestment in mental health and a lack of skills and support”.

Work and Pensions Committee Chair Debbie Abrahams said,

“With almost 1 million young people who are NEET and three in twenty people under-25 now out of work but actively searching for it, it's estimated effect of this is a loss of £1 million in lifetime lost earnings - that's money lost to them, and their families.

“Youth unemployment is a personal and societal loss. That's why it is a defining welfare policy issue of our time and deserving of cross-party Parliamentary scrutiny by the Select Committee.

“Many NEETs may not be in a position to work, they could be carers or in poor health or experienced other adversity. More needs to be done to understand this and ensure they have the barriers to meaningful and sustainable work removed.

“Our inquiry will complement the Milburn Review of NEETs. Examining the causes and consequences of so many young people becoming NEET, support measures for individuals, and how barriers to work can be addressed is essential as well considering the role of businesses – both large and small – in this.”

Call for evidence

Those who want to give evidence can do so by answering any of the questions below on the Committee's evidence submission portal before 16.00 on 12 February 2026.

Young people who are NEET

• What factors lead to a young person not being in education, employment or training (NEET)? Are there some young people who are more likely to be NEET than others?
• What are the long-term consequences for young people who are NEET for an extended period?
• Would it be useful for the Government to set specific goals or targets relating to the number or proportion of young people who are NEET? What might such a target be?

Preventing young people from becoming NEET

• How can the Government, and the DWP, help prevent young people becoming NEET in the first place?
• Are there any examples of Government-funded interventions designed to prevent young people becoming NEET that have been particularly effective?
• • What evidence do we have of where funding has been allocated and the effectiveness of different programmes?

Support for young people who are NEET?

• How well supported are young people as they move from school to college and into education? What impact might the transfer of apprenticeships and skill to DWP for people aged 20+ have on these transitions?
• What is the most effective way of delivering support to young people who are NEET? Are there any initiatives that can be learned from, domestically or internationally?
• How can and should DWP support young people who are not in contact with the benefits system?
• What barriers and disincentives prevent young people from taking up, or completing, apprenticeships?
• What barriers are there to employers offering and targeting apprenticeships at young people? How effectively will the Government's current approach address these?
• How can apprenticeships and other forms of training offered by DWP, e.g. Skills Bootcamps or sector-based work academy programme, be best utilized to support young people?
• How does support for young people who are NEET differ between the UK's four nations? How might the transfer of skills to DWP impact the delivery of support for young people across the UK?

Employment and the labour market

• What are the main barriers to employers supporting young people into employment and how can the Government better work with employers to address these?
• How well is support for young people tailored to local labour market conditions and how can these be improved?
• What impact may developments in technologies, such as AI, have on the employment of young people? How should the Government respond?
• How can employers be encouraged to invest in skills training?

ENDS

Notes to editors

• Sir Charlie Mayfield, in his review, concluded that being NEET in your 20s leads to a lifetime income loss of more than £1 million, with a similar cost being borne by the Government.
• ‘NEET' refers to all people not in employment education or training – whatever their circumstances, while ‘unemployed' refers to just those without a job who are looking for one.