UK Youth Unemployment: House of Lords to Debate 'Scarred Generation'

The House of Lords is set to debate Europe's "scarred generation" of young people as unemployment for 16 to 24 year olds remains stubbornly high across the region.

The discussion comes after the House of Lords' European Union Committee found "compelling evidence" that the UK government should adopt a Youth Guarantee scheme as soon as possible.

The initiative is designed to tackle youth unemployment by ensuring young jobseekers receive an employment offer within four months of leaving formal education or becoming unemployed.

The proposal comes as the Office for National Statistics revealed that the UK's youth jobless rate dipped to 18.5% in the three months to April as more than 850,000 16 to 24 year olds were out of work.

The debate, which is scheduled to start at 19:30 BST on 17 June, also follows Baroness O'Cathain's warning to IBTimes UK that Britain could face more riots like those seen across London in the summer of 2011 if the government does not tackle the problem of youth unemployment.

"The five areas with the worst unemployment rates in the UK are due to receive extra money from the EU to tackle youth unemployment.

"We suggested that the extra money should be concentrated solely on these five areas and we urged the Government to use the money to pilot the Youth Guarantee in these areas.

"We are disappointed that the Government did not act upon our recommendations on this issue."

According to Eurostat, the eurozone's youth unemployment rate hit 23.5% in the three months to April.

The research body also revealed that the lowest rates were seen in Germany (7.9%), Austria (9.5%) and the Netherlands (11.0%).

In contrast, Spain had one of the highest rates at 53.3% as the country struggled to bounce back from the financial crisis of 2008.

The figures mean there were more than 3.3 million young people out of work across the economic and political region in the three months to April.