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Every young person who has been out of work or education for 18 months will be given paid work under a scheme to be announced by chancellor Rachel Reeves on Monday.<\/p>\n
Under the scheme, young people who are on the universal credit benefit will be offered mandatory work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe won\u2019t leave a generation of young people to languish without prospects \u2014 denied the dignity, the security and the ladders of opportunity that good work provides,\u201d Reeves will say during her speech at the Labour party conference<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cI can commit this government to nothing less than the abolition of long-term youth unemployment. We\u2019ve done it before and we\u2019ll do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n Those who refuse the offer of a job are expected to face sanctions, including potentially having their benefits docked, according to people briefed on the plans.<\/p>\n Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden will say on Monday that with the opportunity \u201ccomes responsibility too \u2014 to take up the training, the apprenticeship or the work that is offered\u201d.<\/p>\n The chancellor is set to announce funding for the scheme at the Budget on November 26, and the government will clarify at a later date whether it plans to subsidise or pay outright for the jobs.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the government announced it had earmarked \u00a33.8bn for health-related job support.<\/p>\n The move forms part of the Labour government\u2019s \u201cYouth Guarantee\u201d initiative, where it has pledged that people aged 18-21 will be assured a place in college, an apprenticeship or a job. One in eight 16-24-year-olds are currently not in education, work or training, a rise of almost a third over the past four years.<\/p>\n The Youth Guarantee is currently limited to a handful of \u201ctrailblazer\u201d areas, which are piloting ways to steer more young people towards existing sources of help.<\/p>\n Both unions and business groups have been calling for the government to put more money into a scheme for subsidised jobs. <\/p>\n The Trades Union Congress said this month that the government should create a \u00a31bn-a-year jobs guarantee programme<\/a> similar to schemes that ran following the global financial crisis and Covid-19 pandemic, subsidising employers to offer six-month work placements paid at the national minimum wage.\u00a0<\/p>\n