Green Party proposes two-year Youth Jobs Guarantee

The Green Party has proposed a guaranteed two-year job for 18 to 24-year-olds within four months of leaving education or training. Co-deputy leader Mothin Ali set out the plan at the party's conference in Brighton. ITV

Ministers would not be the employer under the plan. Young people would be offered posts with private firms, with the state paying half the salary. BBC

Employers taking part would be exempt from National Insurance contributions, the payroll tax on wages, on those posts. They would have to provide training on the job. The party has not published a costing. It said the cost would be offset in part by lower welfare spending and higher tax receipts from people in work.

The party said it would pilot the policy in five areas before any national rollout. They are Rotherham, Ceredigion, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Broxtowe and South Staffordshire. The ambition, the party said, is to roll it out nationwide.

Ali framed the policy as an answer to long-term youth worklessness. He said one million young people out of work, training or education were "bored, desperate and lost". He criticised threatening young people with cuts to Universal Credit, the main benefit for people out of work or on low incomes, if they do not accept short-term placements.

The number of 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK who are not in employment, education or training has risen since the Covid pandemic to almost one million. The government's existing scheme subsidises six-month placements for benefit claimants who have been looking for work for 18 months.

The party has named the proposal the Youth Jobs Guarantee. Green Party

A deputy leader also suggested AI technology could be nationalised. ITV

The broader context here is conditionality, the rules that link benefits to job search. Westminster has converged in recent years around time-limited placements tied to those rules. The Greens are drawing a different line. The offer is longer, two years rather than six months. Entry is earlier, four months after leaving education rather than after 18 months of job search. And the sanction is removed, replaced by a guarantee.

Looking at what this means for electoral strategy, the pilot list does the talking. Rotherham, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Broxtowe and South Staffordshire are very different contests from Ceredigion. A pilot is not a national spending commitment. It allows the party to test delivery and employer appetite while planting a flag in seats it wants to be competitive in. Targeted pilots signal seriousness about implementation without inviting an immediate row over full cost.

In my view, the fiscal gap is now the question to press. Half a salary for up to two years, multiplied across even a fraction of those not in work or study, is a substantial commitment. The National Insurance exemption adds a second cost to the Exchequer. The party's argument about welfare savings and tax receipts is standard for active labour market policy, schemes to help people into work. It is also untested until numbers are attached. Two-year subsidised posts cost more upfront than six-month placements. They may also retain better. Without a budget, take-up assumptions or an evaluation design, the trade-off cannot be judged.

Turning to delivery, a separate set of tests arises. A guarantee within four months requires employers to come forward at volume, in the right places and with suitable roles. Training obligations need definition and enforcement. Who accredits the training. What happens if a placement breaks down. What counts as leaving education or training for eligibility. The four-month clock is tight. Any guarantee creates a residual duty if the private-sector offer does not materialise. The party has not yet said how that backstop would work.