social security advisory committee<\/a>, the outdated benefit rules cause \u201cdocumented harm\u201d, distorting poorer children\u2019s career decisions at the point where they must decide between education or training, and forcing some to decide between \u201cthe right pathway \u2026 and an affordable one\u201d.<\/p>\nStephen Brien, the committee chair, said: \u201cThis creates a real risk that decisions are driven by short\u2011term affordability rather than what is right for a young person\u2019s long-term future.\u201d<\/p>\n
In one case, the committee said, a child was given an ultimatum by a parent to \u201cquit the apprenticeship or leave the family home\u201d. They chose the apprenticeship but could not afford to live independently and ended up leaving the job and moving back home.<\/p>\n
Campaigners said the benefit system should be changed to remove the penalty. \u201cNo young person should have to choose between their future and their family\u2019s ability to put food on the table,\u201d said Lucy Schonegevel, of Action for Children.<\/p>\n
Although the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said an apprentice wage \u2013 \u00a3257.98 a week \u2013 should offset the reduction in household benefit income, the committee says in practice it is unrealistic to assume a young person will hand over vast chunks of their wages to parents in this way.<\/p>\n
At the lower end, a family with two working parents on the median wage with two children loses \u00a317.25 a week in benefits. The same family type, but on low wages and claiming universal credit, would lose \u00a395.48 a week.<\/p>\n
A full-time working single parent on low income with one child would lose \u00a3225.49 a week. A single parent on low income with a disabled child would, after child disability elements are withdrawn, lose \u00a3339.92 a week.<\/p>\n
The committee says the apprenticeship penalty is a factor in the rise in young people classified as \u201cNeet\u201d \u2013 not in education, employment or training. There are 957,000 Neets, and youth joblessness is at its highest for a decade.<\/p>\n
It says the \u201cunintended but severe\u201d consequences of the penalty are caused by the DWP\u2019s failure to adapt outdated benefit rules designed for a society where the school leaving age was 16, apprenticeship wages were higher, and the distinction between education and work was clear.<\/p>\n
Laws introduced in 2013 require 16-year-olds to be in either education or recognised training until the age of 18. Both options are officially regarded as of equal value but in practice benefit rules do not align with this principle and penalise vocational choices, the committee says.<\/p>\n
A DWP spokesperson said: \u201cWe are determined to reverse the 40% drop in young people starting apprenticeships over the last decade, and are carefully considering the report\u2019s recommendations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the apprentice minimum wage now at \u00a38 per hour, a young person working 35 hours a week will earn around \u00a3270 a week and, as the report acknowledges, in most scenarios this offsets any reduction in household benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re determined to give every young person the best possible start in their career. That\u2019s why we are investing \u00a32.5bn to tackle youth unemployment, creating 50,000 additional apprenticeships for young people, and introducing a new incentive of up to \u00a32,000 for SMEs which take on a 16- to 24-year-old apprentice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andy McGowan, the policy and practice manager at Carers Trust, said: \u201cIt\u2019s time for the benefits system to finally catch up. The system currently deepens pre-existing inequalities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are abandoning valuable job training opportunities because of a little-known welfare \u201capprenticeship penalty\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-545980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}