Study finds UK NEETS who don’t claim benefits have better prospects
Key Points
- The Milburn Review interim report raised the issue of 'hidden NEETs' - those young people not in work, education, or training who do not claim benefits.
- It referred to the phenomenon as 'troubling', but new research published by the IFS has found that hidden NEETs generally have better prospects and come from better-off families.
- More than half of hidden NEETs have been NEET for fewer than six months and hold a university degree. 80% of them live with their parents.
New research has found that young people not in work, education, or training who do not claim benefits have better employment prospects than those who do.
This is according to a study published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank which examined the phenomenon of roughly 300,000 young people in Britain who do not claim benefits despite not being in education, employment, or training (NEET).
The interim report of the Milburn Review into young people and work found that there were nearly 900,000 NEETs in the UK at the end of 2025, and highlighted the ‘troubling finding’ that roughly a third of these NEETs were outside of the main channels supporting those out of work and were not claiming benefits.
Research published by the IFS seems to show that while the number of NEETs remains concerning, the prospects of those who are not claiming benefits are generally better than those who are.
So-called ‘hidden NEETs’ can be eligible for at least £4,000 per year in benefits, but they are not claiming these. Despite this, the study found that they were less likely to be struggling financially than those NEETs who did claim benefits.
According to the data, 82% of these hidden NEETs are looking for work, doing voluntary work, or in a temporary transition, and only 2% say they are out of work due to sickness or disability – compared to 27% of NEETs receiving benefits.
Additionally, more than half (57%) of hidden NEETs have been NEET for fewer than six months. Amongst those who claim benefits, that figure is only 6%. Again, the research found that more than half of hidden NEETs have a degree, compared with 12% of NEETs who receive benefits.
However, it was noted by the study that hidden NEETs are generally more likely to come from richer families than those who claim benefits, with 37% of hidden NEETs coming from households in the top third of the income distribution. For NEETs on benefits, this proportion is just 6%.
80% of hidden NEETs are living with their parents, while another 6% live alone but receive support for their living costs from friends or family.
The IFS said that while hidden NEETs are better placed than those on benefits to enter the labour market, there are a minority who have been NEET for a long time but are excluded from government employment initiatives tied to the receipt of benefits.
It said that to address this issue, the government could make employment initiatives open to all young adults regardless of whether they claim benefits.
“Some of the recent policy discussion on hidden NEETs has assumed that they are a particularly vulnerable group that has fallen through the cracks in government support and so demand particular policy attention,” said IFS Research Economist Jed Michael.
“However, our research suggests that hidden NEETs are much more likely to have good job prospects than NEETS receiving benefits, they are less likely to have been NEET for a long time, more than half have a degree and relatively few report poor health or a disability. They are also less likely to be struggling financially.”
“This suggests that although hidden NEETs still face a very challenging labour market, most of the NEETs who are in greatest need of support are already receiving benefits,” Michael said.
