Britain28 July, 20262 min read
Pat McFadden Announces Up To £4,500 Universal Credit Bursary For Apprenticeship Families
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Up to £4,500 bursary for benefit households offsetting UC losses when child begins apprenticeship. Aims to encourage teenagers on benefits to start apprenticeships by removing financial barriers.
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Bursary for apprenticeships
Britain’s government said some parents on Universal Credit could receive up to £4,500 a year if their child starts an apprenticeship, aiming to replace Universal Credit payments lost by starting jobs. Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said: "By providing bursaries to those who need them most and fully funding apprenticeship training, we are making sure cost is not the reason someone misses out." The BBC said the payment is expected to benefit an estimated few thousand households and that families currently face losing between £17 and £330 a week if their children start apprenticeships.
The Department for Work and Pensions said the bursary would close a loophole that penalises potentially thousands of low-income households when a young person is reclassified as an independent worker. The scheme is funded through the growth and skills levy, described by the BBC as a tax on employers with annual wage bills over £3m.
Conditional expectations
Speaking to the Guardian, McFadden said young people will be expected to engage with new support to find work, as he announced parents receiving benefits could get £4,500 a year if their child starts an apprenticeship. The Guardian quoted McFadden saying: "And then there is an expectation that people engage with the support." The Guardian described the penalty as most likely to affect single parents or disabled teenagers under 18, where the family loses the child component of universal credit.
It also said the bursary of about £4,500 would compensate for a situation where the apprenticeship salary is £258 a week while lost benefits could be £340 a week. The BBC reported that the Conservatives welcomed Prime Minister Andy Burnham's support for apprenticeships but criticised his plans to fund the bursaries.
Funding, targets, and rollout
The government said the bursary is funded through the £1 billion additional investment in the reformed growth and skills levy, and FE Week reported families would be eligible for up to £4,500 per year per household. FE Week said the bursary sits alongside reforms aimed at boosting under 25s apprenticeships take-up to meet the government target of 50,000 by the end of Parliament in 2028. FE Week also said employers can benefit from up to £8,000 in support for hiring young apprentices, including a £2,000 hiring bonus for SMEs, a £2,000 incentive for foundation apprenticeship starts and £3,000 youth jobs grants.
GOV.UK said the government would fully fund apprenticeship training for all eligible under-25s from 1 August, and it linked the package to creating 50,000 new youth apprenticeships by the end of this Parliament. The Guardian reported that Burnham said he wanted to avoid "crude cuts to benefits to get the welfare bill down" as he continued policy announcements to address youth unemployment and Neet levels.