McFadden unveils £30m bursary to plug welfare cliff edge for teenage apprentices
The Department for Work and Pensions has announced a targeted fund to offset Universal Credit losses for families, contingent on young people participating in work support programmes.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden has announced a £30 million fund designed to provide bursaries of approximately £4,500 to families in England whose teenagers enter apprenticeships. The initiative targets a specific systemic quirk where lower apprentice salaries trigger the loss of the child component of Universal Credit, a penalty that disproportionately affects single parents and households with disabled children.
McFadden confirmed that access to the bursary, which is funded through the current departmental budget, would be conditional on young people engaging with the work assistance provided. Echoing the stance of Prime Minister Andy Burnham, the Secretary emphasized that while the government has an obligation to put support in place, there is a reciprocal expectation that recipients actively participate in the programmes designed to help them.
The measure addresses what McFadden described as an unintended barrier within a complex welfare framework, noting that such cliff edges are rarely created by design. The financial penalty can see families lose approximately £80 a week when a teenager takes up an apprenticeship, effectively trapping households in the benefit system despite the young person pursuing a career path.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham supported the announcement as part of a wider strategy to reduce youth unemployment and reform the welfare system. Burnham has previously indicated a desire to emphasise technical and vocational skills in education and to make benefit support more conditional upon people taking up opportunities presented to them, aiming to avoid crude cuts that might push individuals into further crisis.
Charities have welcomed the bursary but warned that uptake relies on effective communication. Enver Solomon, chief executive of Nacro, stated that it is vital for potential employers to directly inform young people of the scheme’s existence to ensure no one is missed. The government is also preparing for a broader response to welfare issues, with interim reports already suggesting that Personal Independence Payments criteria are not fit for purpose and further reviews on youth unemployment expected in the autumn.
