The Milburn Report Shows Shocking Truths!

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Hi, welcome to another episode of hot takes. Alan Milburn's report is long, it's extensive, it goes into great detail, and don't worry, I'm not going to go through it in its entirety. We'd be here for hours, but I am going to go through and do a a bit of a analysis of his analysis, if you will. I shall strip it down and put it into little bite-size bits.

[00:00:23]Make it easier to digest because it is actually truly frightening when you see what's happening.

[00:00:30]Um he says that Britain is facing a crisis that should well I would suggest that actually he he said it should be of concern to people in this country. I would go a step further and say it should be terrifying. I think it should terrify people in this country uh because this isn't a minor sort of um policy, you know, shake-up or anything.

[00:00:55]It's not a statistical inconvenience.

[00:00:58]It's a moral crisis.

[00:01:02]Um it's a social crisis.

[00:01:05]It's an economic crisis.

[00:01:09]It's possibly the clearest warning yet that the country is failing its own people. Alan Milburn, as I say, the former Labour Health Secretary from uh the Blairite uh the years, um I think Brown as well. Um he has now delivered his report on youth unemployment, and the findings are actually devastating. The number of young people not in education, employment, or training, the NEETs, as they call it, has now passed over a million. A million. It's a million real people with real families. This isn't just names and numbers on a spreadsheet.

[00:01:45]These are teenagers and young adults >> [clears throat] >> at the start of their life looking to just go out into the world and make their way, but they've found that the door is already closed, locked, and barred.

[00:01:59]There's no job, there's no training, there's no college place that leads anywhere useful.

[00:02:05]There's no first step into adulthood.

[00:02:08]There's no wage packet.

[00:02:10]There's no routine.

[00:02:14]As far as I can tell, there's no future.

[00:02:17]Uh Milburn warns that unless something changes, and by something he means unless the government do something, the number will continue to rise to at least at 1.25 million, possibly higher.

[00:02:34]It means one in six young people aged between 16 to 25 will be out of work and on benefits by the end of this decade and may never work again, or at least never work beyond anything other than a minimum wage job.

[00:02:49]>> [clears throat] >> This is not a little that you know, light on your dashboard here. This is the engine seizing up, because without the young people coming through to push upwards, you don't have enough people at senior positions later on.

[00:03:07]Um the country's burning, of course, because of Labour policy, and this is exclusively Labour policy. And Milburn is a Labour man, but even he has said that this is Labour policy that's caused this. He says there's other things, there's outside factors, he says, but certain policies and he's really having a He's He's He's partly He's putting this in certain way. He's not having a go at Starmer. He's having a go at Reeves.

[00:03:30]He's basically blaming Reeves for this.

[00:03:32]Um he said that the cost to the country would rise simply for young people to 125 billion a year. That's more than the government spends currently on education.

[00:03:45]So, let's be clear here, because Labour like to say that, you know, Labour like to say they're a they're a compassionate party, but this isn't compassion.

[00:03:54]This is not a functioning safety net that the welfare state is meant to be.

[00:04:00]Um this is a machine for turning young lives and taking all that potential and putting it into permanent dependency.

[00:04:12]You're creating a generation of dependencies.

[00:04:18]And of course once it happens, it lasts for decades, and possibly their entire lives.

[00:04:22]Milburn warns that being neat has a scarring effect on confidence, on health, on future income, and on life chances and opportunity.

[00:04:33]For someone who spends the whole period of 18 to 24 outside of education and work, the lifetime loss can be around 300,000 pounds.

[00:04:43]And think about what that is.

[00:04:47]That's a house not bought.

[00:04:50]A pension never built.

[00:04:52]A career never started. It's a life wasted. A life wasted before it even properly starts.

[00:05:00]And this is what happens when a country forgets how to give its young people a first chance.

[00:05:07]I've just thought of something which literally just came into my head. I wish I'd put it in the script, but I'm going to say it now.

[00:05:18]One of the side effects of raising the retirement age is that these old people tend to stay in work longer before they retire.

[00:05:31]If you lowered the retirement age, they'd have to go earlier.

[00:05:36]And therefore there'd be more vacancies, and everyone would step up, and then there'd be vacancies at the bottom for you young people to come in.

[00:05:44]But the pension is less than putting a putting someone on welfare.

[00:05:52]Wouldn't it be a better idea for the nation to reduce the pension age down to say 60 to encourage people to go earlier and have more people coming at the bottom?

[00:06:07]Literally just thought of that.

[00:06:10]>> [clears throat] >> Anyway, let me know about that. I'm not I haven't done the maths on it. I haven't worked it out. It's just something that struck me. Anyway.

[00:06:19]Um one of the most explosive parts of this report is Melbourne says Labour this is what I was saying Labour's own policies are the things that's making this so bad. Employees told him that raising wage costs, higher top taxes and above inflation minimum wage increases are making it harder and in fact nigh on impossible to hire young workers. And now nobody seriously wants young people paid poverty wages, but on the other hand, if you know, the difference between taking on a young person who knows nothing and an experienced person who knows a bit you'll take the older person, wouldn't you? Cuz you'd have to spend so much time training up the young one.

[00:06:58]Um and of course in a lot of these places like pubs, cafes, restaurants and things pennies matter.

[00:07:05]Hiring a young person is already a risk.

[00:07:07]They have no experience, they need training, they need support, they may need time, they're bound to get things wrong.

[00:07:14]So what does Labour do?

[00:07:16]It increases the cost of hiring them.

[00:07:18]It's mental.

[00:07:20]Um and then of course generally it increases the national insurance and then it brings in the the workers rights act. It's absolutely bonkers. All those new employment regulations, it's a minefield. If you make young workers more expensive to hire, fewer fewer of them get hired.

[00:07:36]It's simple.

[00:07:38]Melbourne is right.

[00:07:40]Um but it isn't to fair, it isn't entirely Labour's fault. It's been brewing since COVID.

[00:07:49]Um the Saturday job has almost vanished.

[00:07:52]Um apprenticeships have weakened. Even entry-level work, you get these positions, I've seen them. Um entry-level position, 3 years experience required.

[00:08:02]Well, it isn't entry-level, it's 3 years, but that's all they can afford to pay as an entry-level wage, but they need someone with three with experience.

[00:08:11]And and I know from experience cuz I got people who who I know um who sadly um they will go and apply for jobs, young young people, and they'll apply and apply and apply and apply.

[00:08:22]They go on things like Indeed or whatever they go apply apply apply apply apply.

[00:08:26]Hundreds of jobs.

[00:08:28]And then they get automatically rejected. Nobody's actually looking at these things. It's just computer says no.

[00:08:34]Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum No.

[00:08:37]But the reason they're doing it is cuz the job isn't really there.

[00:08:40]The people at Indeed just want your data.

[00:08:43]Um it's very very difficult to get this I mean I could go out to literally if I wanted to go work, I could go out tomorrow and get a job like that.

[00:08:55]Because >> [clears throat] >> 35 years experience fully qualified, senior role.

[00:09:04]I wouldn't walk into a senior role. I'd walk into a mid-level role.

[00:09:09]But they'd be glad to have me because I'd be getting they'd be getting a senior person at a mid-level price.

[00:09:15]But I'd have a job tomorrow if I needed it. Thank god I don't.

[00:09:18]Um but you know, going back into accountancy, I can you know rather shoot me face off, but um but I mean I'm unfortunately in that position. But these kids coming up, they haven't got that skill, they haven't got that knowledge, they haven't got that experience.

[00:09:33]They can't take a step down in level. I could. I've gone from top I can come down to mid-level. I can go down to low-level management. I can go to sort of senior clerical.

[00:09:42]I've got lots of positions below me, you know? It's It's that It's that What's the word? It's the the ziggurat of of um experience.

[00:09:52]But young people need help. They need support. Um They need treatment, some of them.

[00:09:57]Again, not That's not denigrating. It's that lack of social awareness from being locked up for 2 years.

[00:10:04]Um They certainly don't need to be written off at 19 years of age and said, "Oh, just sit on welfare for the rest of your life."

[00:10:11]Milburn is calling for a reform of the sick note system as well. Good. Good idea.

[00:10:18]But every £1 spent by the Department of Work and Pensions on employment support for young people means another 25% is spent on benefits.

[00:10:30]So if you're going to spend money, don't spend it on benefits. Spend it on work support. Get them out there.

[00:10:37]Get them working.

[00:10:38]It's backwards otherwise, isn't it? It's indefensible.

[00:10:40]The welfare state should exist to help people move forward, not to tie them back.

[00:10:47]Because that's not welfare policy.

[00:10:50]Um We've got to also convince the kids that no work is below them. I'm going to give you that one.

[00:10:56]Um but we must create these entry-level jobs in various positions. And yes, in service industry, in admin, in sales, wherever.

[00:11:08]Create them. Get them in. Get them a job. Doesn't matter if it's a shitty job. It's a job.

[00:11:15]Most young people want to work.

[00:11:17]Most of them, young people would love a job.

[00:11:20]They want a route in. They want dignity.

[00:11:22]They want independence. They want that little pay packet at the end of the week. It's their money.

[00:11:27]They just can't get it.

[00:11:29]We will lose We will lose as a community, as a nation.

[00:11:34]Because we're going to lose cohesion. We're going to lose these people.

[00:11:40]They won't have that camaraderie of you know at work, you know. Oh, you might be working for an awful boss, but you're all in the same you know. You're all moaning about the boss and things like that. They'll We'll lose families, we'll lose communities, we'll lose confidence, we'll lose the future.

[00:11:53]And this is all coming from socialism.

[00:11:55]This is all coming from one woman.

[00:11:58]And Alan Milburn is right and well done and well said so. This has really dragged on.

[00:12:03]Um Thank you very much.

[00:12:05]Do take care and I shall speak to you later. Bye.