Some parents on benefits to get up to £4,500 for child starting apprenticeship

Some parents receiving benefits will be eligible for up to £4,500 per year to encourage their children to start apprenticeships, the government announced. As part of a plan to steer young people into work, families will be offered a bursary intended to replace Universal Credit payments lost when a child takes on an apprenticeship. The measure seeks to eliminate a situation in which a small minority of households risk losing income if their offspring begin an apprenticeship. Officials estimate the scheme will aid fewer than 1,000 families, who currently stand to lose between £17 and £330 each week depending on individual circumstances. The bursary will be drawn from a £30 million fund financed by the growth and skills levy, a levy on employers whose annual wage bill exceeds £3 million. It follows the work of a Social Security Advisory Committee report, external which warned of the "perverse effects" of the benefits system on young people's employment choices. The report noted, for example, that a lone parent with a disabled child could lose as much as £340 per week in benefits if the child embarked on an apprenticeship, exceeding the expected apprenticeship wage of £258 per week. Because apprenticeships are classed as paid employment, benefit payments are reduced for households where young people undertake such training. The committee said the system was hampering government efforts to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet). In a recent report, former Health Secretary Alan Milburn warned that one in six young people could be Neet within the next five years unless urgent action is taken. Official figures show that more than one million people aged 16 to 24 are currently Neet. The government said its new bursary would remove a barrier to young people taking on apprenticeships, allowing them to "earn and learn". Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said: "By providing bursaries to those who request them astir and afloat backing apprenticeship training, we are making definite outgo is not the crushed idiosyncratic misses out." It forms part of a wider package of support for apprenticeships, including funding for apprenticeship training for under‑25s and further assistance for employers taking on apprentices. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said Sincity Press