Rise due to more young offenders being jailed, according to report by Prince's Trust and RBS
The cost of youth crime in Britain has risen sharply to £1.2bn a year due to more youngsters being imprisoned, according to a report by the Prince's Trust and RBS.
The number of young people aged between 16 and 24 claiming unemployment benefit for more than 12 months has also quadrupled since the start of the recession, the study reveals.
The figures emerge from the charity's Cost of Exclusion survey which attempts to assess the impact of the economic downturn on young people. Youth unemployment currently costs the country £155m a week.
Young people's prospects have been more severely affected than in previous recessions because firms have tended to hold on to existing workforces while suspending fresh recruitment programmes.
The Prince's Trust last conducted its Exclusion report in 2008 when it estimated the cost of youth crime at £1bn. That survey was based on 2004 figures.
The latest youth crime costings, based on work carried out by researchers at the London School of Economics, suggests that has risen by 20% over four years.
Although fewer young people are being convicted of offences, according to the trust, more are being imprisoned than before. The cost is equivalent to £23m a week. The current re-offending rate means that three-quarters will be in trouble again within two years.
The rise in unemployment has left the UK with a much higher youth jobless rate than many other European countries, including Germany, Denmark, Austria, Norway and Holland. The number of young people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance for more than year jumped from 5,840 in 2008 to more than 25,800 this year.
Martina Milburn, chief executive of the Prince's Trust, said: "The easy buck you might earn through crime may seem worthwhile in the short term.
"But one of the saddest things I saw in Reading Jail recently was a prison officer who said he's now locking up the children of those fathers and uncles he first locked up when he came into the service. We are trying to break through that cycle and show young people a future."
The Prince's Trust is helping 44,000 young people this year who are trying to build a career. "We are amazed that our success rate in finding people work has risen from 31% of our intake to 36%," she added.
Fionnuala Earley, an economist at RBS Economist, said: "As the UK struggles to clear record levels of national debt, we cannot afford to ignore the growing costs of youth disadvantage. This is not just a welfare burden – lost productivity and wasted potential directly affect the rate of economic growth in the UK."
Responding to the report, the TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: "While the government focuses all its energies on spending cuts, the prospect of losing a generation of young people to unemployment and under achievement looms ever larger."
The employment minister Chris Grayling also acknowledged the findings: "Despite throwing millions of pounds at the problem, the patchwork of ill-conceived and poorly thought out schemes we inherited from the last government failed young people across the country.
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