| Practice area: | Education and Labour Markets |
|---|---|
| Client: | Department for Culture, Media and Sport |
| Published: | February, 2026 |
| Keywords: | Public Policy young people |
London Economics were commissioned to conduct an economic evaluation of the National Citizen Service (NCS), which was a key youth programme for 16 to 17-year-olds in England which ran until July 2025.
Working alongside Verian and The Social Agency, London Economics explored the average household’s willingness to pay in taxes to support NCS, as well as estimating economic benefits and providing benefit-cost ratios associated with the residential service line in relation to the impacts on participants.
The willingness-to-pay analysis found that households would pay an average of £10.16 in taxes per year to fund the NCS programme, resulting in an aggregate non-use value of the programme of £286.5 million. This is between 5-6 times higher than the NCS total budget of £50.3 million for 2023-24.
The further value-for-money analysis assessed the economic benefits of the programme through a bottom-up approach and a top-down approach. The former considered impacts relating to increase aspirations to further study, volunteering, and improved non-cognitive skills. These impacts resulted in a total economic benefit to NCS participants of £57.6 million in 2023. Lastly, the top-down approach focused on changes in subjective wellbeing among participants, finding an economic benefit of £15.0 million.
The full report, including the findings above from the economic evaluation as well as further insights relating to the process and impact evaluations, can be found here.