The state has failed young people in a “shameful” way by “transporting them into the world of benefits”, the leader of a major Government review warned.
Former health secretary Alan Milburn said his review found the state was spending 25 times more on welfare for young people than on measures to get them into jobs.
He said a programme of welfare reform was essential and urged Labour MPs who opposed Sir Keir Starmer’s previous attempt to change the system to remember they were “the party of work”.
Mr Milburn also hit out at the impact of social media on young people’s lives which had fuelled anxiety and “rewired” their brains.
He told BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that “what is shameful” is that “as we’ve uncovered in the course of this review, for every £25 that we spend keeping young people on benefits, we spend only £1 helping them get into work through employment support”.
Mr Milburn said: “This is a failure of the welfare system, but it’s a failure – I’m sorry – of the school system, the skills system, the health system.
“What we’re doing is we’re not prioritising getting young people into a situation where they can be learning or earning.
“And instead we’re transporting them into the world of benefits with incalculable costs for their life chances.”
Asked what his message was to Labour about the need for welfare reform, he said: “Labour is what it says on the tin, it’s the party of work.
“Work gives purpose, work gives income, work gives meaning, it means you can contribute, but if you can’t do that, that has an impact, not least on your mental health, but also on your life chances.
“Second thing is, welfare reform is absolutely essential and needs to be done, but as I said it’s got to be within the context of a wider set of reforms to state institutions.”
He told The Times that young people who are not in employment, education or training (Neet) “are not snowflakes”.
Instead, they are part of “a bedroom generation”.
“They are sort of living in their bedrooms – they are on all the time, they’re never off.”
Young people’s sleep patterns and concentration levels are affected by social media, the former health secretary warned, and “that is having an impact on their ability to work”.
He said: “They are not snowflakes. People say it’s a soft generation. My view unequivocally is that it isn’t. It is an anxious generation.”
According to The Times, Mr Milburn’s report will warn that they have “grown up in a digital world that has rewired how they communicate, form relationships and manage stress”.
“They have fewer experiences of workplaces and they present with higher levels of anxiety and depression.”
Mr Milburn’s interim report into young Neets is expected to be published next week.
Every one of a group of ten 12- and 13-year-olds who engaged in his review said they went to bed between midnight and 3am because they are scrolling on their phones, The Times reported.
The report is also expected to warn that the welfare state and world of work were built for a different generation.
British businesses must also adapt to offer “a high level of pastoral care for this cohort of young people living with mental distress”, Mr Milburn said.
He added: “Employers have been on easy streets because they have been able to import migrant labour, oven-ready.
“That has fallen off the cliff.”
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), an estimated 12.8% of all people aged 16 to 24 in the UK were Neet in October to December 2025.
The total number of young people considered Neet was 957,000.
