Review to look at role of mental health issues in UK youth unemployment

The role of mental health issues and disability in youth unemployment will be examined by the former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn as part of a review looking into rising inactivity among Britain’s young people.Nearly a million people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training, often described with the acronym Neets. Milburn will look at ways to avoid people becoming trapped as Neets and the findings will be published in the summer.The government announced the review four days after publishing the findings of another review, by the former John Lewis boss Charlie Mayfield, which said “young adults” aged 16 to 34 were one of the key cohorts affected by an “economic inactivity crisis”.The number of 16- to 34-year-olds with a mental health condition who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness rose by three-quarters, or 190,000, between 2019 and 2024, Mayfield’s review found

HMRC trial of child benefit crackdown wrongly suspected fraud in 46% of cases

Home Office travel records used in a trial of a controversial anti-fraud crackdown under which thousands of parents lost their child benefit were so flawed that almost half of the families initially flagged as having emigrated were still living in the UK, it has emerged.The benefit is not payable if the claimant is abroad for more than eight weeks unless there are exceptional circumstances. The pilot scheme saved HMRC £17m but left 46% of the families targeted incorrectly suspected of fraud, a margin of error far in excess of the 1% to 5% scientifically acceptable.In Northern Ireland, 78% were incorrectly identified as not having returned from trips abroad and 129 families were flagged during the pilot as having left the countrywhen only 28 had actually done so.Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, called for an urgent investigation after being contacted by several constituents who had their benefits stopped

Royal College of Psychiatrists faces member backlash over Qatar partnership

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is facing a backlash from members over a controversial partnership with Qatar’s state healthcare provider.The college has signed a contract with the state-owned Hamad Medical Corporation to host international exams in Doha, enabling psychiatrists from across the Middle East and beyond to apply for membership.But the decision to hold clinical exams in a country with well-documented human rights abuses and in which same-sex relationships are criminalised has prompted more than 150 psychiatrists from leading UK hospitals and universities to sign a letter to the president of the college.“A commercial relationship with Qatar’s public health system, a de facto branch of its government, runs a risk of significant reputational damage to the college,” states the letter, which was sent in September.“Women are denied equal rights in a number of domains and there is no legal protection for domestic abuse,” the letter says

Having open conversations with boys is key to fending off the manosphere threat | Letters

It’s great to see that there are young men who are actively looking for alternatives to the kinds of masculinities displayed online (I’m a teenager who was lured into the manosphere. Here’s how to reach young men like me, 2 November). But to me, Josh Sargent’s article is about more than just the manosphere. It’s about the platforms that facilitate it, and how social media diverts attention away from things like reading and toward things that largely don’t matter. Josh says it himself: “in fairness, short-form content is slightly more engaging than Macbeth quotation flashcards”

Social media misinformation driving men to seek unneeded NHS testosterone therapy, doctors say

Social media misinformation is driving men to NHS clinics in search of testosterone therapy they don’t need, adding pressure to already stretched waiting lists, doctors have said.Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is a prescription-only treatment recommended under national guidelines for men with a clinically proven deficiency, confirmed by symptoms and repeated blood tests.But a wave of viral videos on TikTok and Instagram have begun marketing blood tests as a means of accessing testosterone as lifestyle supplement, advertising the hormone as a solution to problems such as low energy levels, poor concentration and reduced sex drive.Doctors warn taking testosterone unnecessarily can suppress the body’s natural hormone production, cause infertility, and increase the risk of blood clots, heart problems and mood disorders.The online demand for treatment is so great that medical professionals have now begun to see it mirrored in their clinics

‘Heroic actions are a natural tendency’: why bystander apathy is a myth

It was early morning on 1 January last year when Colin McGarva dived into a flooding river in Worcester to rescue an unconscious woman. McGarva said he didn’t think twice about the risk to himself, or the devastating loss his newborn son would suffer had he too been swept away by the fast-flowing icy waters.“I didn’t stop to think because the instinct – the instant reaction – is to help someone in need,” he said. “Someone’s life is an important thing. Helping is just something you have to do