Ministers are looking at whether to ban unpaid internships that have been criticised for helping young people with wealthy parents get ahead in the workplace.

Damian Hinds, the employment minister, said it was right to review internships as unpaid posts are not accessible to those who do not have help with their living costs.

He told ITV’s Peston on Sunday: “I think it is important that young people have an opportunity to get work experience. One of the big barriers to getting a job is not having had employment experience and so there is a role for work experience. But I think particularly in the media, in fashion, in these very sought-after occupations, there is a concern … that with unpaid internships those aren’t actually accessible to everybody and I think it is right that we look at it.”

Hinds said the details would need to be worked out and it was important to ensure that young people still get work experience. However, he said it was crucial to make sure jobseekers had fair access to sought-after roles, especially the creative industries.

“It is part of making sure that we are fair to everybody … it is important for social mobility that everybody has a crack at getting into … the particularly competitive industries,” he said.

“It’s also about making sure that children at school have access to and are guided towards subjects that are going to help them. It’s about the apprenticeship programme; it’s about a whole raft of things.”

A ban on unpaid internships was proposed under the coalition government by the former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg but was blocked by David Cameron.

Tanya de Grunwald, founder of careers blog Graduate Fog and a campaigner for fair pay for interns, said it was about time that ministers addressed the issue.

“Young people have been crying out for this issue to be addressed for years, and unpaid internships are flagged in pretty much every report on social mobility, as a barrier to good jobs,” she said.

“Campaigners regularly remind the government that we are perfectly placed to explain exactly what the problems are, and what could be done to improve the situation, but so far they have shown little appetite for this information. So if that is finally changing, we look forward to their call.”

Alec Shelbrooke, Conservative MP for Elmet and Rothwell, will introduce a House of Commons private member’s bill to ban the unpaid internships this week, but it is a type of legislation that is unlikely to progress through parliament.

Instead, the government could review internships before including restrictions on unpaid internships in legislation in the next Queen’s speech.

Hinds confirmed the plan was being examined ahead of a green paper from the Department for Work and Pensions on Monday that will examine the way people are assessed for disability benefits.

Damian Green, the work and pensions secretary, will launch a consultation on reform of the work capability assessment (WCA) tests, which have been criticised by charities for causing worry to disabled people and forcing the ill back into work.

Ministers have said they want to provide more “targeted and personalised support” for people with disabilities while they look for jobs.

Green said the proposed changes would focus on “improving opportunities and raising aspirations while making sure those people who most need support from the government receive it”.

It comes after an earlier announcement from Green at the Conservative party conference that people with severe, long-term health conditions would no longer have to be reassessed for their benefits.

The system was previously overseen by Iain Duncan Smith, the former work and pensions secretary, who is pressing Theresa May and the chancellor, Philip Hammond, to stop cuts to the work allowance in the new universal credit benefits system.

He also repeated calls on Sunday for the government to review Cameron’s “triple lock” on pensions, which raises the state pension each year by the higher of inflation, the increase in average earnings, or 2.5%.

This article was written by Rowena Mason Deputy political editor, for theguardian.com on Sunday 30th October 2016 14.31 Europe/London

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