Most concerning, Britain’s lost million are increasingly locked into their isolation: 60 per cent of current Neets have never had a job — the highest figure since records began — and almost a third report a disability or chronic health problem that prevents them working. Governments can at times rely on a fair wind in the wider labour market to bring some economically marginalised youths back in from the cold, but hundreds of thousands in this group are now so far removed from the world of work that they risk becoming permanently stuck outside.