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In an interview with The House magazine, to be published in full this week, Usdaw general secretary Joanne Thomas said failure to improve pay for young people entering their first jobs would do little to address the crisis of youths not in education, employment or training (NEETS).

The warning comes as former Labour minister Alan Milburn is expected in a report on Tuesday to recommend restricting under-25s’ access to sickness and disability benefits as a part of a wider overhaul of the welfare system.

For young people in work, Labour’s 2024 general election manifesto promised to remove the staggered ‘age band’ system which determines the minimum wage an employee receives.

While the minimum wage for anyone 21 or over is £12.71 per hour, those aged 18-20 are still only entitled to £10.85.

In a recent appearance on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Chancellor John Healey refused to guarantee that the government would deliver on its manifesto promise before the next election.

“There is no question about whether or if; it’s a question of when – and it’s a question of how fast,” he said, adding: “I want to make sure we can look hard at those trade-offs that are there between jobs and wages.”

Responding to Healey’s comments, Thomas told The House: “We are absolutely adamant that we want Labour to fulfil their manifesto commitment. That is the whole point of manifesto commitments… They are discriminatory age bands; there’s no two ways about it.”

Thomas, who experienced low pay as a single mother aged 17, said she had “lived and breathed” what young people on the minimum wage are facing today.

“I was paid less, but I still had a house, I still had my rent, and then when I bought [a home], a mortgage to pay. I still had to put food on the table, yet to get paid less… it was just absolutely ridiculous.”

The union head argued that for someone taking their first steps in today’s labour market, whether they can expect to be paid enough to live comfortably makes a major difference.

“Do people feel like work is giving them access to a better life?” she asked. “If it’s not, the answer is not to reduce the pay and the terms and conditions from when you’re first starting with the company.

“The answer has to be about giving good jobs, about giving jobs with decent pay, decent terms and conditions, so it’s attractive enough to say ‘Do you know what? I’m going to apply for that job.’”

In separate comments, Thomas also addressed the situation facing Poundland and its 12,000 employees at risk of redundancy.

“If this situation was happening in the likes of steel or other industry, there would be an uproar about it,” she said, adding that there needs to be a national change of narrative to recognise retail’s importance to the economy.

“Retailers are the largest private sector employers in the UK. Through the pandemic, they were seen as like the fourth emergency service, and yet when we have situations like this, there doesn’t seem to be the gravitas that is shown to industry.”

Legislation should be passed, she argued, to place greater controls on venture capitalists and ensure the same thing cannot happen in the future to other British businesses.

“It is unacceptable for a company to put this many British jobs at risk, because we have overseas investors that want to line the pockets of their shareholders – even when the business is doing well – and they don’t want to sell.”

Poundland’s owners, Gordon Brothers, have said the retailer remains “challenged and vulnerable to any potential downturn in future trading”.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has meanwhile said he is “deeply concerned” by the “uncertain future” of Poundland and its employees, adding: “The Prime Minister and I stand ready to take action to help workers and reassure families however we can.”

The full interview with Joanne Thomas will appear in Monday’s edition of The House magazine and online next week.