Who gets to judge the young?

George Bate, 21, studied games design. After sending job applications around Telford and hearing little back, he changed direction and started training to drive HGVs. He told the Guardian how disheartening the search had been. By the time he was interviewed he was in training, although still struggling to enter paid work.

He had not stopped trying. But lack of motivation is one of the explanations people give when asked why young adults are outside work, education or training.

A government-commissioned Ipsos poll of 2,031 adults in February 2026 found 50% of 55-75-year-olds thought young people’s lack of motivation was a significant reason for rising numbers outside work, education and training. Among 16-24-year-olds, 24% thought so.

When asked who was most responsible for addressing the problem, 38% named government and 12% named young people themselves. Blame for a problem and responsibility for fixing it are not the same thing.

That also puts the decisions of government and employers under examination.

Any job, even one that pays too little?

In the same poll, 68% said a young person should prioritise getting any first job over waiting for a good one. Only 23% preferred finding a good first job instead; the rest were unsure.

Another question imagined a young person on out-of-work benefits turning down an offered job because it did not pay enough. Seventy per cent of 55-75-year-olds thought their benefits should stop, compared with 43% of 16-24-year-olds.

The question specified no wage, hours or living costs. Respondents judged whether someone should accept a job without knowing whether that person could afford to take it.

The reason for refusing mattered. Respondents were more sympathetic when a job conflicted with disability or full-time care than when someone found it uninteresting. And the 55-75 age band included working people as well as retirees.

Who gives somebody their first chance?

The expectation to take work sits alongside a recognised problem. In that February survey, 67% identified lack of experience as a barrier to a good job. Seventy-eight per cent agreed employers should play a bigger role in offering work experience. Sixty per cent believed finding a first job or experience was harder than it had been for their parents’ generation.

People asking young adults to gain experience also recognised how much depends on employers giving them a first chance.

In a separate Ipsos survey of 2,180 adults in July and August, half thought young people had fewer opportunities than previous generations. That included 47% of 55-75-year-olds.

In the same Guardian report, Charlie Pryce, 19, was training to drive HGVs after struggling to find work and further training. He had a direct answer to the claim that his generation was lazy: “We actually want to do work.”

He was describing what he had done to find work, while other people were being asked to explain his generation.

A DWP-commissioned survey of 417 young people outside work, education or training found 84% wanted work, education or training; 54% wanted employment specifically. It asked different people different questions from the Ipsos polls, but it is hard to square those answers with the blanket accusation that young people do not want to participate.

What a headline chooses to put first

In a December 2025 speech, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described people refusing jobs they considered beneath them. She spoke initially of people, but discussed young people elsewhere in the speech. A Times headline foregrounded young people turning down such jobs. The report itself also covered welfare spending and benefit eligibility. Its headline shows what readers encountered first, not the whole treatment of her speech.

In an ITV/Press Association report of 19 October, Prime Minister Andy Burnham called the scale of youth inactivity an economic catastrophe and a moral failure. A reader seeing only those words could mistake the target of his criticism. The full report makes clear that he was also arguing that government and society had failed to offer sufficient opportunities and support, while expecting young people to use those provided.

Headlines determine what readers see first. Neither example shows how often that emphasis appears or whether it changes opinions.

Ofcom’s 2026 research describes how people of different ages encounter news, but not how these particular statements affected their opinions.

Government has been questioned. What did it answer?

Institutions do face scrutiny. The Commons Work and Pensions Committee investigated youth employment, reporting in July 2026 that government measures did not go far enough. It criticised poor coordination between departments and noted that 44% of young people outside employment, education and training were not claiming benefits. Policies delivered mainly through benefit claims could therefore miss people who needed help.

The government’s formal response, published in October, defended targeting the Jobs Guarantee at young Universal Credit claimants who had been looking for work for 18 months. It cited the scheme’s cost and the risk of paying for employment that would have happened anyway. It agreed to a programme evaluation, including longer-term outcomes, but did not commit to modelling different qualifying periods. Wider eligibility remained under review.

The committee asked who might be left without help. Ministers explained why the programme had limits. Those are competing concerns, and the answer will depend partly on what the scheme delivers: a placement alone does not establish lasting employment.

The same standard for everyone

Young people can be expected to take opportunities and answer for their choices. But an employer setting entry requirements, a government deciding who qualifies for help or an editor choosing a headline is exercising judgement too.

We ask whether a young person is willing to work. We should be just as precise when asking whether employers, politicians and public services have made that work possible.

The question is not simply whether young people are failing society. It is why we are so ready to put young people on trial, and whether we demand the same evidence and accountability from the institutions shaping their futures.