The Milburn Review exposes a generational crisis

In my 20s I spent two long periods of time unemployed. These were some of the most miserable months of my life. I was depressed, I was bored, I was deeply unhappy. I struggled to believe in my own value as I was unable to convince any employers of it. It took months for me to find a job and the longer it took the harder it seemed. It took years for my self-confidence to recover.

I have recently watched a young person I love struggle to find a job. Normally this is one of the most well-adjusted, confident young men I have ever known. I recall reading Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation and thinking about him. While I found a lot to agree with in Haidt’s analysis, looking at this young person and his sister, my first thought was: “the kids are alright”. But as he struggled to find work it was clear it was wearing him down.

Recently, having sent out CVs for months, this young man found a job. We went for dinner in his second week and the difference in him was night and day. All his confidence, excitement and joie de vivre was back. He was tired after a long day but it was the kind of tiredness that comes from a fulfilling day’s work. He was fatigued – he was not listless.

READ MORE: Milburn Review to set out stark NEETS challenge and call for whole system reform

This feeling should be available to all young people but as the Milburn Review sets out today, it is not. That is a disaster for a generation of young people who have already lived through so much.

If you are 18 today you have only ever known the conditions that arose out of the economic turmoil of the 2008 crash. You went to schools that suffered under austerity watching youth services disappear just as you aged into them. Your world was shaped by the divisions of Brexit – something 75% of young people believe was the wrong choice. Your secondary education – a time so essential to learning not just academic but also social skills – was interrupted by Covid lockdowns where you were expected to go weeks – sometimes even months – without seeing friends in person. They did this as a sacrifice for a nation that now owes them an enormous debt.

Today’s report sets out the problem, and it is a crisis we can all agree exists. The tricky part will come with setting out agreed solutions.

There are two right wing answers to this crisis that Labour should avoid.

Become a friend of LabourList and join our community. Our friends support our vital non-factional work and get access to exclusive content and events. 

The first is to roll back the rebalancing of workers’ rights that this Labour government has undertaken. As Paul Nowak has rightly said today, Labour should be speaking of this change more proudly; not allowing ourselves to be cowed into submission. Work is good for us, but good work – with rights as well as responsibilities – is an essential component of that. We have to find a way to defeat this false sense of choice between good jobs and no jobs.

The second is to make cutting the welfare bill the priority rather than making the system work better. This is putting the cart before the horse.

If Labour is to succeed in this agenda and transform the lives of young NEETs there will – in time – be a reduction in the benefits bill.

But if we start from staring at a spreadsheet, we lose our ability to look to the horizon.

We have to start from a position where we are ready to invest what it takes in making people able to live fulfilling, contributory lives. We must invest in system change now that will – done right – save money on the welfare bill in the future. But we must do so because we are investing in the future of our people. If bringing down the cost of welfare becomes the driving compulsion behind any measures, we will go for cheap half-measures that will not address the long term, systemic failings that need to be dealt with first and foremost.

Having said that, some of the measures needed might go against some of the more liberal instincts of the Labour Party, which kick against some types of compulsion – seeing compulsory learning or training or putting conditionality on benefits as against our values.

I understand this instinct, but I think back to my days as a bored, unhappy, listless young person and I believe I would have benefitted from some compulsory work experience. It must be well designed to allow young workers to feel confident, not cowed. It must – as Jodie Gosling has outlined for us today – ensure that it is available to – and inclusive for – everyone.

Subscribe here to our daily newsletter roundup of Labour news, analysis and comment– and follow us on TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp, X and Facebook. You can also write to our editor to share your thoughts on our stories and share your own. The best letters are published every Sunday.

What Milburn has set out today is not just a crisis for young people. It is a crisis for our whole society. What will be needed will be bigger than tinkering at the edges of the welfare system, education, or the world of work. The solutions Milburn comes back with in the autumn should invite us all to step up to this challenge

• • SHARE: If you have anything to share that we should be looking into or publishing about this story – or any other topic involving Labour– contact us (strictly anonymously if you wish) at [email protected].
  • SUBSCRIBE: Sign up to LabourList’s morning email here for the best briefing on everything Labour, every weekday morning.
  • BECOME A FRIEND: If you enjoyed this, why not consider becoming a Friend of LabourList? Help sustain our journalism, and of course Friends do get benefits…
  • PARTNER: If you or your organisation might be interested in partnering with us on sponsored events or projects, email [email protected].
  • ADVERTISE: If your organisation would like to advertise or run sponsored pieces on LabourList‘s daily newsletter or website, contact our exclusive ad partners Total Politics at [email protected].