Some parents on benefits will be given up to \u00a34,500 a year to encourage their children to start apprenticeships, the government has said.<\/p>\n
Under plans to encourage young people into work, families will be offered a bursary to replace Universal Credit payments lost by starting jobs.<\/p>\n
The payment is expected to benefit an estimated few thousand households, who currently face losing between \u00a317 and \u00a3330 a week if their children start apprenticeships.<\/p>\n
The Conservatives welcomed Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s support for apprenticeships, but criticised his plans to fund the bursaries.<\/p>\n
The bursary will be paid for from a \u00a330m pot, funded through the growth and skills levy, a tax on employers with annual wage bills over \u00a33m.<\/p>\n
It followed the publication of a Social Security Advisory Committee report, external<\/a> which warned of the “perverse effects” of the benefits system on young people’s employment choices.<\/p>\n It said, for example, single parents with a disabled child could lose up to \u00a3340 per week in benefits if their child started an apprenticeship, exceeding the expected apprenticeship salary of \u00a3258 per week. <\/p>\n Because they are classed as paid employment, benefit payments are reduced to households where young people take on apprenticeships.<\/p>\n The committee said the system was hampering government efforts to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet).<\/p>\n