𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Prime Minister Andy Burnham will never have a better time to crack down on youth sickness benefits than now. Part of the £333billion welfare bill mountain, Pips, or personal independence payments, scandalously pay young people signed off with anxiety issues up to £100 more than those youngsters working part-time minimum wage jobs.

By cutting Britain’s enormous benefits bill, Burnham will be able to afford his other pledges and he will never be more popular among his restive back benchers than now. It’s not an exaggeration to say he must seize the moment or doom Britain to further decline.

Some 87,000 16 and 17-year-olds are claiming Pips, with two thirds receiving £194 a week to cover the costs of mental health issues, including anxiety, depression and autism. If a teenager worked a 12-hour week for minimum wage, they would take home just £94, while staying at home and claiming benefits would net them twice as much. Patently, this non-mean-stested benefit is unfair and a clear disincentive to work.

An epidemic of Pips means that the number of teenagers not in education, employment or training – so-called Neets – has ballooned to more than one million. Benefits that break the habit of going out to work could in fact be adding to young people feeling depressed and alienated from normal life. It is also adding considerably to the nation’s debt mountain.

The total number of people claiming incapacity benefits is projected to rise from 1.4 million to a staggering four million by 2030. Unlike the rest of the world where employment rates have returned to pre-Covid levels, Britain still has 700,000 more people out of work over health concerns. Sadly, Britons have been busy learning to claim more and more benefits and left-leaning governments have smoothed the path for them.

Labour tax rises have not helped either. Decimating traditional jobs for young people, as employers are discouraged from taking on young workers by an increase in national insurance and the minimum wage. The easy availability of benefits has only fed into this doom loop of youth unemployment.

Faced with a similar rising number of Neets, the Dutch government tackled the problem by dramatically cutting the minimum wage for teenagers, encouraging businesses to take on less experienced workers. The Dutch rate is staggered from 15 to 21 and over, with the youngest wages being almost a third of older employees, encouraging school leavers into work. The Dutch lowest wages is £3.83 an hour compared to the £10.85 Rachel Reeves imposed on companies which kicks in next month.

The Dutch have also insisted on all young benefits claimants doing community work. As a result, the number of Neets in the Netherlands has fallen to 4.9% compared to 12.8% in the UK.

In the UK, the toxic combination of easily-available benefits means industries like catering are failing to get the young people they need to train for the next generation of service workers. Instead roles are being filled by hard-working migrants.

Tackling this systemic problem is part of Burnham’s drive to take on long term issues that other governments haven’t dared to touch. Despite winning a landslide victory in 2024, Keir Starmer faltered at his first attempt to roll back rocketing welfare costs when left-wing backbench MPs threatened revolt over cuts.

In contrast, Burnham has won the approval of these same radical lefties and now has a short window of opportunity to push through some much needed reforms. He has boasted of his determination to change the last 40 years of politics and this is the moment he must live up to that pledge. He’s made it clear Labour has only one more chance to prove it can govern responsibly and effectively. This is the challenge.

By insisting that young people will not receive Pips unless they are in training or voluntary work, he will encourage a healthier nation better attuned to finding work. By reducing disincentives to employment he will also generate more money to pay for the promises he is making, including his revolution in social care. Burnham likes to talk big and now he must push through those changes while he is riding high in the polls and has the enthusiastic support of otherwise rebellious MPs. Favouring useful trades over university courses, Burnham knows that Britain’s future depends on encouraging the working spirit.

By stopping young people from idling at home with fake health issues, he will have done our nation a tremendous favour. Backing the genuinely working class.