‘This is not just an economic crisis, it’s a moral one’

Fears for ‘a lost generation’ as youth unemployment surges

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Former health secretary Alan Milburn speaks to the media on the publication of the interim Milburn Report into

The UK’s youth unemployment crisis is costing the country around £125 billion a year, a review has estimated as its author warned of a “whole system failure” amid an urgent call for change.

The sum, said to take in losses in taxes alongside higher health and welfare spending, is more than annual education spending in England and could rise if the situation worsens, the interim report by an ex-Labour health secretary suggested.

The Government-commissioned report came as new figures published yesterday showed the number of young people neither working nor learning has topped one million for the first time since 2013.

The Office for National Statistics said the number of people aged between 16 and 24 and not in employment, education or training, so-called Neets, rose to 1.01 million in the three months from January to March.

Alan Milburn’s review has estimated this number could rise to one in six young people by 2031, representing 1.25 million young people.

At a press conference in London, Mr Milburn warned that the issue is “more than an economic crisis, it is a moral one”.