Green Party Proposes Guaranteed Two‑Year Jobs for Under‑24s

The Green Party proposes that young people be guaranteed a two‑year employment placement within four months of completing their education or training.

At the party’s Brighton conference, co‑deputy leader Mothin Ali noted that roughly one million young people are currently bored, desperate, and disconnected from work, training, or education.

The scheme would place young people in private‑sector positions, with the government covering half of their salary.

Although no budget has been disclosed, the Greens argue the policy would lower welfare expenditure and increase tax revenues through employment.

The party says it will initially focus on regions with the fewest job openings for youth—namely Rotherham, Ceredigion, Newcastle‑under‑Lyme, Broxtowe, and South Staffordshire—before expanding nationwide.

Employers would be exempt from National Insurance contributions but required to provide on‑the‑job training, according to the party.

The Greens aim to present this plan as more ambitious than the government’s initiative, which subsidises six‑month placements for benefit claimants who have been job‑searching for 18 months.

Ali also criticised ministers for suggesting that young people who decline short‑term placements could lose benefit entitlements, telling activists, “Threatening young people with cuts to Universal Credit if they don’t accept short‑term work placements is not a youth strategy.”

He added that working‑class youth should not only have the freedom to dream but also a real opportunity to realise those aspirations.

Since the Covid pandemic, the number of 16‑ to 24‑year‑olds not in employment, education, or training has risen to almost one million.

A long‑awaited report on the issue by former Labour minister Alan Milburn is expected to be released this autumn.

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