Youth anger at Cameron benefits threat
(Originally Published by Equal Times)
Translations: Español | Francais
Young people in the UK have reacted angrily to Prime Minister David Cameron’s proposals to cut benefits for jobseekers under the age of 25.
Translations: Español | Francais
Young people in the UK have reacted angrily to Prime Minister David Cameron’s proposals to cut benefits for jobseekers under the age of 25.
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Photo by UK Department for International Development (DFID) |
Speaking at the Conservative
party conference on Wednesday Cameron said: “…we should give young people a
clear, positive choice: Go to school. Go to college. Do an apprenticeship. Get
a job…But just choose the dole? We've got to offer them something better than
that.”
Tory officials subsequently
confirmed that young people could lose an automatic right to claim Housing
Benefit and Jobseeker’s Allowance if they refused to accept job offers, in the next round of Conservative welfare reforms.
But with the latest figures from
the Department of Work and Pensions revealing a total of 1.09
million “Neets” – young people not in education, employment or training – Equal Times gathered the views of under
25s struggling to break into the UK labour market.
Heyder
Rashid, 23, from Warrington, is currently on an apprenticeship but was until
recently claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance. “These cuts should not be a priority. The
government should be concentrating more on helping young people find jobs”, he
said. “Most young people come out of University at the age of 23 with an
undergraduate degree and still have problems finding a job, how will they
survive if the benefits are cut further?”
Rashid’s sentiment was echoed by
17 year old Liam Blakesley from Rochdale who has never been in full-time
employment and is completing a work placement as an office receptionist while
living with his family: “The
idea is stupid. There are no jobs going, so it isn’t fair to hit people
when they are trying so hard to get a job.”
Other
views were more nuanced. Georgina
Douglas, 18, from Coventry, is also doing an apprenticeship but argues the
government needs to strike the right balance:
“I
think in some ways it is fair and but also in some ways it can be cruel. It is
fair because young people could get into the habit of always relying on
benefits and this could lead them to not try and get work or even further
education – this could lead them into staying in the benefits system for a long
time. However cutting their benefits could lead them into a job that they don’t
enjoy or a job where they have nowhere to go on to.”
But
Sarah Morris, 19, who recently moved out of her family home in Manchester,
fears such a move would further limit the ability of young people to live
independently. “Young
people want to get out of their parents’ clutches and live their own life with
independence. But cutting housing benefits is going to make this impossible for
them – which could lead to more young people becoming homeless,” she warned.
The Liberal Democrats have
previously blocked plans by Tory ministers to reduce Housing Benefits for
people under-25, meaning that the latest proposals are unlikely to be introduced before
the 2015 election.
Earlier this year a report revealed Britain has the third highest
rate of youth unemployment in the OECD. The coalition government subsequently
launched a ‘workfare’ scheme whereby unemployed young people are given a choice
between working for free and sacrificing their benefit payments. In April, Paul Fletcher, Director of the
UK youth charity Rathbone, told Equal
Times the government wasn’t doing enough to create work opportunities for the
young.
“Employers are not taking on
young people because they haven’t got demand for their services. I think we
need a job creation scheme for young people. The key is they need to last at
least a year so they have sufficient time to gain skills that allow them to
then enter the labour market. The young people actually get paid a wage and
retain a key ingredient called dignity.”
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