UK’s teen benefit hotspots revealed as staggering 1MILLION youths are out of work – how does your area fare?

6 comments 6 Next BRITAIN’S youth benefit hotspots have been laid bare – with Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield topping a grim league table. The Sun can reveal the areas where thousands of teenagers and young adults are relying on the state for cash, piling pressure onto the government’s ballooning benefits bill. Welfare payments are now costing the country a staggering £334billion a year, as Andy Burnham is under growing pressure to get a grip on the UK’s sky-high benefits spend. Sun Money looked at the total number of claims for both Universal Credit (UC) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) payments among those aged 16 and 17. Advertisement Sign up for the Money newsletter Thank you! Email address Please provide a valid email. Your info will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy You'll now receive top stories, breaking news, and more, straight to your email. Universal Credit is a means-tested benefit to help with daily living costs and rent for people on a low income or out of work. PIP is a non-means-tested benefit to help cover the extra costs of living with a long-term disability or health condition. Read more in money AISLE EARNERS Supermarket launches Xmas jobs spree with 28k roles paying up to £16.90/hr COFFEE SHOCK Costa may be SOLD after losing out to cheap rival as UK's biggest coffee chain We looked at claims in each local authority across England, Scotland and Wales using Department for Work and Pensions data. Birmingham is the worst-hit area in the UK, with a total of 1,993 claims for UC and PIP. Leeds follows closely behind at 1,286, and Sheffield with 1,212. In Liverpool, 1,197 young people are currently relying on state support to get by, while in, County Durham there are 1,145 claiming. Most read in Money TOBY MUGS Fury as Toby Carvery starts WEIGHING meat portions on Sunday roasts AISLE EARNERS Supermarket launches Xmas jobs spree with 28k roles paying up to £16.90/hr COFFEE SHOCK Costa may be SOLD after losing out to cheap rival as UK's biggest coffee chain SHOP TO IT I make £250 a YEAR scanning my supermarket receipt & £800 from my app hacks Manchester is not far behind with 1,127 claims, and Bradford with 1,112. Meanwhile, the Isles of Scilly has no youths claiming benefits, while the City of London has only seven. Advertisement Shimeon Lee, policy analyst at the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “Taxpayers will be deeply concerned that so many young people are already becoming reliant on welfare before they have even properly entered the workforce. “With the benefits bill surging and nearly a million young people out of work or education, this is a warning sign for the wider economy. “Ministers need to get young people into jobs and training, not allow a generation to drift into long-term dependence on the state.” Slashing welfare payouts in this month’s Budget could free up cash desperately needed to boost defence spending. But the PM has ruled this out, having previously declared: “ National security can’t come at the expense of social security .” Advertisement Critics have slammed the government’s welfare spend as unfair, with some 200,000 families getting more in benefits than what grafters earn on the average wage of £39,000. Reform UK chairman Lee Anderson MP has accused Labour of losing control of the system entirely. “Labour have completely lost control of our welfare system,” he said. “Taxpayers who get up every morning, go to work and pay their bills are being taken for a ride while the benefits bill rockets and the number of people out of work continues to grow. “We need to restore basic principles. If you are genuinely unable to work, you should get the support you need. But if you are capable of working, you should be expected to work. Advertisement “Reform will overhaul this broken system, crack down on abuse and put work back at the heart of welfare.” Meanwhile, across all age groups, the Department for Work and Pensions recently revealed sickness-benefit claims for benefits such as Universal Credit and PIP have hit a staggering record of 7.6million. This includes an all-time high of 4.1million PIP claims. The number receiving the health element of Universal Credit has rocketed by 23% in just 12 months, climbing from around 2.9million to 3.5million. Spending on PIP and Universal Credit health support combined has surged from £15.71billion in 2019/20 to £53.02billion this year, and is projected to hit £75.77billion by 2030/31. Advertisement Sir Stephen Timms, who is reviewing how PIP works, said the system introduced in 2013 needed “fundamental change” to become “financially sustainable”. Youth jobs crisis The growing welfare crisis also comes as youth unemployment hits its highest level since 2014. Shocking figures released in August revealed almost one million young people in Britain are still neither working nor studying. The Office for National Statistics said 981,000 people aged 16 to 24 were not in education, employment or training between April and June this year. That marks a rise of 30,000 compared with the same period last year, meaning 13% of all young people in the UK are now classed as NEET. Advertisement Nearly 400,000 of those classed as NEET are unemployed and actively looking for work, up by 26,000 on the year. The remaining 588,000 young people who are NEET are economically inactive, meaning they are not currently seeking or available for work. Labour grandee Alan Milburn is leading a review into the NEETs issue, warning there is a risk of an “economic catastrophe” alongside a “moral crisis”. Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said: “We are determined to turn the tide on the youth unemployment crisis, which has been years in the making with the number of young people not in education, employment or training rising by 248,000 between 2021 and 2024.” He added: “These latest figures underline why we are addressing youth inactivity as a priority. The Jobs Guarantee is already supporting those most in need with the first young people to be supported by the scheme now in work, and our wider £2.5billion investment will help create almost a million opportunities to earn or learn. Advertisement “Further reform will follow the Milburn Review, which will report shortly.” RECOMMENDED STORIES A DWP spokesperson said: “We are already reforming the welfare system across the country by narrowing the gap between Universal Credit standard and health rates, restoring face-to-face assessments, and investing £3.5billion in employment support to end the culture of people being signed off and written off.” The spokesperson added: “We’re putting work and opportunity at the heart of the system, and the final recommendations from the Timms and Milburn Reviews will lay the foundation for sustainable reform.” 6 comments 6