Chancellor Rachel Reeves has the chance to transform the lives of nearly one million young people who are not in education, work or training if she gives businesses a tax break to take them on, according to major new research.

A bold move to encourage firms to take them on could boost Treasury coffers by up to £23billion, according to the Centre for Social Justice.

The respected think tank is pushing for businesses to be given to be given a 40% tax break on the cost of taking on a so-called “Neet” – one of the 946,000 people aged 16 to 24 whom it says are not in “education, employment or training”.

Ed Davies of the CSJ said: “The Government needs to get serious about tackling the employment crisis among our young people. It is intolerable to carry on pretending that there isn’t a problem or that we can do nothing about it, that we should just continue to pay for spiralling welfare costs.

“There is an alternative. Offering a true, and much needed, incentive to businesses to hire young Brits could deliver for young people, the businesses that hire them and for the wider British economy.”

The think tank says that for every £1 the Treasury foregoes in the tax rebate it will get a return over

It argues that the initial cost in foregone taxes to the Exchequer would be £10,166 for a full-time employee and £3,651 for a part-time one. But it says that after five years in work the average employee would have made a net contribution of £59,500 through additional personal taxes and the reduction on the welfare bill.

If the number of Neets fell by 52%, it calculates, the Treasury would gain around £23billion with around three-quarters coming from social security savings.

The authors of the proposal say that foreign nationals who are only in the UK for limited time would be stopped from accessing the scheme. Participants who need to have a British passport or pass a residency test to prevent abuse of the system.

A Treasury spokesman said: “The Chancellor has been clear that we need to do more to train people as there are a million young people not in education, employment or training. That’s why many employers can already benefit from employer NICs reliefs, including for hiring under-21s and under-25 apprentices.

“We’re also reforming the apprenticeship levy to turn it into a growth and skills levy, have set up Skills England and are working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions to support those people back into work, to make a positive contribution to the economy and fulfil their potential as well.”