Some parents on benefits are incentivised to discourage their kids from taking on apprenticeships.

Some parents on benefits will be given up to £4,500 a year to encourage their children to start apprenticeships, the government has said. Under plans to encourage young people into work, families will be offered a bursary to replace Universal Credit payments lost by starting jobs. The payment is aimed at ending a situation in which a small number of families risk losing income if their children start apprenticeships. The payment is expected to benefit an estimated few thousand households, who currently face losing between £17 and £330 a week depending on individual circumstances. The bursary will be paid for from a £30m pot, funded through the growth and skills levy, a tax on employers with annual wage bills over £3m. It followed the publication of a Social Security Advisory Committee report, external which warned of the "perverse effects" of the benefits system on young people's employment choices. It said, for example, single parents with a disabled child could lose up to £340 per week in benefits if their child started an apprenticeship, exceeding the expected apprenticeship salary of £258 per week. Because they are classed as paid employment, benefit payments are reduced to households where young people take on apprenticeships.