“In the 1980s youth unemployment continued to rise for four years after the recession ended. A generation of talent was wasted. We are determined that must never happen again, so we will guarantee a job, training or work experience at six months for 18 to 24 year olds.
“And, because we believe that work is the best way out of poverty we are continuing with radical reform to the welfare system. This means that everyone – be they lone parents, carers or disabled people will get the support they need, not only to get work – but to stay in work. We will also guarantee that people will be better off in a job than on benefits.”
(Yvette Cooper -on announcing the White Paper - Building Britain’s Recovery: Achieving Full Employment)
And at the moment youth unemployment (16 to 24-year-olds) was at 952,000 in the three months to October, a quarterly rise of 6,000. NL are parrot fashioning the phrase ‘investing in young people’ and this is all meaningless considering there’s an election coming up. They also emphasise the need for ’high quality’ and ‘the chance of progression and development’… But where are these mythical jobs?
You have fire and Grimstone in the public sector which means slashing public sector jobs, which means more unemployment and selling off the family silver aint gonna help except for the establishment in their desperation to sell the public sector for profit. We are looking towards very depressing times ahead which needs the Left needs to get its act together to fight this….
As far as I know the young person’s job guarantee IS workfare NOT gainful employment! A part-time minimum wage job with a forty mile daily commute on public transport isn’t going to help anybody! What the hell is wrong with the Labour Party? Ten years ago they would have rubbished any Conservative Party that tried to promote such inhumane and ridiculous policies.
The Young Person Job Guarantee called Community Task Force is basically New Deal under a different name (although they are phasing it out to be replaced with Flexible New Deal).
http://flexible-new-deal.co.uk/2009/12/09/workfare-community-task-force/
It begins in January as voluntary and later becomes mandatory. It will be charity shop work for most participants.
Luther:
“A part-time minimum wage job with a forty mile daily commute on public transport isn’t going to help anybody!”
You’ve cracked it.
It’s since the days of Tony Blair and Anthony Giddins circa 1996-97 that I’ve been wondering whether these people think that 8 hrs a week flipping burgers at a McDonalds or any burger van are really going to make a difference for the better to people and society at large.
This is the ideology of neoliberalism, pure and simple. And Cooper et al proposals are sick jokes and as Luther rightly says it is not gainful employment…it is workfare…
And it is obv. a load of crock when they keep going on about ‘investing’ in young people….and ‘meaningful jobs’. Where are they? The public sector is being smashed by corporate capitalists who have been sent in by NL. From Lord Carter, David Freud and Gerry Grimstone. It is gonna be a grim future with the Serco and Crapita running the show! Gawd helps us!!!!!!
I think “… everyone will be better off in work…” is code for low wages and incredibly infeasibly low social security benefits to ensure that a large differential is always maintained between wages and welfare. Cooper wants to replace out of work poverty with in work poverty, not help people into worthwhile well-paid jobs; the goal of Cooper’s folly is to make the headline unemployment figure appear as if it is falling while not really helping the unemployed at all. It will be a diet of workfare, part-time and temporary or zero-hour contract work for the sick, disabled, unemployed and single parents which will get them nowhere. What an evil bitch!
I agree Luther, it is code for low wages and attacks on benefits. Indeed it is a diet of Workfare, temp contracts, and insecure work… Welcome to 2010 and beyond!