Some parents on benefits will be offered up to £4,500 a year if their children start apprenticeships, BBC News reported, under government plans intended to reduce financial barriers to young people entering work.
The bursary is designed to replace Universal Credit payments that families can lose when a young person begins an apprenticeship, because apprenticeships are treated as paid employment. The government expects the measure to help a few thousand households that currently face losing between £17 and £330 a week.
The payments will come from a £30m fund financed through the growth and skills levy, which is charged to employers with annual wage bills of more than £3m.
The announcement follows a report by the Social Security Advisory Committee, which warned that benefit rules could have “perverse effects” on young people’s decisions about work. It said a single parent with a disabled child could lose up to £340 a week if the child started an apprenticeship, more than the expected apprenticeship wage of £258 a week.
The committee said the system was making it harder for the government to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training. Former Health Secretary Alan Milburn has recently warned that one in six young people could fall into that category within five years unless urgent action is taken. Official figures show more than one million people aged 16 to 24 are currently not in education, employment or training.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said the bursaries, alongside fully funded apprenticeship training, were intended to ensure that cost did not stop people taking up opportunities to “earn and learn”.
The policy forms part of a wider apprenticeship support package, including funding for training for under-25s and further help for employers who take on apprentices.
The Conservatives welcomed Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s backing for apprenticeships but criticised the proposed funding. Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately said the money had already been committed elsewhere and questioned whether the announcement was fully funded.
Burnham has said he is “on a mission” to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training. On Tuesday, he also set out plans to balance academic and technical skills more evenly in the education system.
