Alan Milburn welfare review could be delayed until after Budget

Reports in The Times say the recommendations of a government-commissioned review into young people who are not working or studying could be delayed until after the Budget. The review is being led by Alan Milburn. The delay would push decisions on conditionality and sanctions for young people past the next fiscal event, at a time when welfare reform is already politically contested.

In an interview clip, Milburn set out the case for balancing support with obligations. He said: 'If opportunities are increasing, so are obligations on young people.' He added that most young people want to take opportunities, but every welfare system has a backstop. 'If you're not prepared to grasp them, then that's a real problem,' he said.

The issue was then debated in a broadcast discussion. Labour MP Rachel Maskell, who has opposed some changes to PIP and other welfare measures proposed by Keir Starmer, welcomed Milburn's interim report. She said it had diagnosed the problem and that young people lack access to work. She warned that many young people are not in education, employment or training, and said the priority should be breaking that cycle through support, mental health help and secure paths into training or education as well as jobs.

Maskell said the UK is not behind other countries on the number of young people entering employment, but is behind on training and education. She argued that conditionality must be handled carefully, asking at what point support is withdrawn. She said employers are not offering enough opportunities to young people. On Milburn's phrase 'tough love', she said: 'Some of these young people have never experienced love, let alone tough love.' She rejected the idea of sanctioning or blaming young people without understanding the reasons they cannot access work.

She also called for the policy to be devolved so that skills, work, training and youth services can be joined up locally. She said employer responsibility should be part of the solution and criticised short-term, six-month job schemes that leave young people on a carousel. Conditionality, she said, should not push people further away from the labour market, training or further education.

A Conservative panel member, James, said Maskell was ducking a key question. He cited around a million young people not in education, training or work. He said Milburn's research had found a group that lacks the right incentive to enter the workplace, and that some are sitting back on welfare instead of taking the opportunities work gives. He argued that important decisions are being held back and that the report should be used to push reform. He also said the country is based on individual responsibility, that people become adults and must support themselves and their loved ones, while accepting that many young people have legitimate disabilities or restraints and should be supported.

Maskell responded that 400 young people in her constituency are not in education, employment or training. She said they are missing out and that the problem must be solved, but with a forensic approach rather than treating young people as one group. She blamed underinvestment in education and cuts to youth services over the last 15 years, and said Labour is rewiring the system.

The exchange did not produce agreement on how far sanctions should go. No government statement on the reported delay, and no direct response from Milburn to the timing, appeared in the coverage.