Benefit cuts

This week we have been hearing the government saying young people should work or learn and in principle it's an excellent idea however just how are they supposed to live ?
We have young men and women working for £2.73 per hour expected to now fund their own housing and with no top up benefits helping with their rent.
I am genuinely confused how they are supposed to live.

I have one who has been on 3 apprentice schemes none have led to a real full time job because the employers are open about wanting new apprentices who will work at very little cost rather than giving them proper jobs.

I may be missing something, there may be a grand plan I am unaware of so if anyone knows how this is supposed to work please enlighten me.

Re: Benefit cuts

Apprentices used to be a serious training scheme for industrial skills - engineering, carpentry, leather work, and so on; based at your job, with some training at the local technical college; and they would typically be 5 to 7 years in length
At the end you had a respected qualification, and were almost certain of a job. Now they've been devalued to the extent that they're often just a name for a short training course and an excuse to pay low wages
This is similar to the devaluing of 'university' and 'degree'

There is a grand plan, it's to pay as little as possible, reduce benefits,and offer virtually no security to employees, the sick, unemployed, and so on. That is why the Conservative government has been, and still is, happy to see zero hours contracts, cheap immigrant labour, and is seeking to restrict the ability to strike.

Like the other main Parties they have only just started to react to immigration when they have been pressurised to do so by UKIP and others, and are only now to starting to realise what a mess or problem they've got into.

There should be fun & games now as we have a government that was only elected by a minority of the electorate, but have an overall majority in the Commons.
Let's see what happens when they try to legalise foxhunting again, as they have threatened to do within the next 12 months.

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I agree and think it was such a shame when they got rid of the technical colleges and the old B tech qualification which was a respected and recognised form of apprenticeship for all trades.

Now there is a shortage in trained craftsmen.

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Politicians all seem to live in that utopian other-world Julie.

David Cameron sincerely believes that the Coalition provided 2 million jobs and links that with "2 million back in employment" or words to that effect because that's what he's told but it's a fallacy and always was.

I had a scan through our local paper the other day and Yes, there are more jobs again but the vast majority of the local workforce currently seeking work - like our eldest, 43-year-old son - are semi-skilled or unskilled and having to go up against increasing numbers of foreign workers who are basically the same; semi-skilled or unskilled.

The jobs I saw in the paper were were specialised engineering-type positions or high-flying office-based jobs - or carers as usual.

There's very little around that our son could actually go for but he's applying for anything and everything.

It's has been about 10 months now so prospective employers always assume there is some reason why he has not managed to get a full-time job.

In his case he was dismissed unfortunately so he's finding it harder than most but there is no help from the DWP or offers of help to perhaps retrain to increase his prospects.

If you listened to the politicians, especially in the run-up to the Election, you would have heard all sorts of promises or maybe references to help schemes, training etcetera but it is extremely limited or non-existent around here.

Around here there are several firms that take-on young lads.
They are getting paid by the government for this so their costs are minimal as they pay a "training rate" which is less than the minimum wage, with the full approval of the DWP.

After six months they get rid of them all and hire new ones, all with the blessing of the DWP but what the lads learned in that six months is they were used as cheap labour and not actually taught anything that could help them get another job, unless it's as a labourer again and we're already knee-deep in them!

It does however guarantee that the local Unemployed Figure drops, so there's the usual back-slapping all round at the Chamber of Commerce but it's a merry-go-round and the only way off is to get one of the few full-time jobs as and when they come up or know someone who can get you a look-in.

Our son is looking further and further afield too and the way it's looking now is he may have to go down to London and stay in digs because the work situation could be better down there.

As his family is already stretched to the limit now we fear for the break-up of the family because there's no way it'll work but he's desperate. stevmk2

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Zuludog, I will agree with you in as far as the decline in true apprenticeships and the value of a university course has contributed to the poor state of our economy and as you observe Meg, a lack of skilled craftsmen.

I won't contribute to the conspiracy theories or the side issues of allowing a free vote on hunting.

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Benefit cuts? Well if you are a single mum with kids more fool you if you screwed around. Or are you unfit to work?-can you breath?

Those who know me will know I am being sardonic

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Julie when I was about to leave school me and my Dad went to firm which was in an industry I wanted to be in. I well remember the interview in the Personel managers office (This was long before these people became 'Human Resorces' managers )

It was made clear to me that there would be a guaranteed job at the end of the apprenticeship (which incidentally was five years.)

So what has changed Well in those days we didn't have competition from the likes of China and Taiwan so English firms could afford to take on and train young people, also there was respect for older workers when they were showing you how to do something, now young people leave school thinking they can do and say anything to anybody because that's how the state school system works, if an older worker tries to discipline an apprentice today he'll either just walk off the job, argue and swear, or maybe even plan some stupid prank to try to make the older worker look silly.

And all of those five years I lived with my parents, can't see what is wrong with that but of course young people today want a (new) house a (new) car, beer and nightclub money and all the things the TV and Film industry ram down their throats and make them feel that they MUST have.

Until apprenticeships revert to what they are supposed to be, and until the aspirations of school leavers get down to basics in life (Not what their freinds say they should have) and especially until the state school system starts to really educate and discipline kids nothing will change.

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If he can get a job in London and stay in digs Mon to Thu. night why do you think that "There's no way it'll work"

I haven't any idea of numbers but would guess that maybe half a million people do that now, it's not that hard given that we have communication anywhere at any time, SKYPE even gives him the chance to see his wife and familly as well as speak with them.

I have done it for ten years, didn't like being in London but avoided going out in the evening, wrote letters, attended to bills, read a few books and had more time at wekends to enjoy familly life.

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Well my young man has to house himself really we no longer have room here for him, he is on the sofa these days as we needed the room for Grace when she moved in. Not all children have a home he was chucked out of his parents home when he was 8 years old.

As far as I can see he is polite and does everything he is asked as quick as he can. He doesn't drink or smoke and really Mosque is his night out he isn't able to afford much. A car would be great but he has a bicycle as that's cheap.
It's not his or many of the youngsters faults they don't get jobs at the end of apprenticeships when the employer states they can get another 6 at the apprentice rate of pay rather than keep on one of the now trained young people more wages.

I say trained but really what training has he had ? very little that I can see he could have done the jobs he has been trained for about second day on the job as they are not real apprentices they are just cheap labour.

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How do people afford to do that ? effectively run 2 homes one in the most expensive place in the country to live ?