Today David Cameron announced under-25-year-olds who are not
‘earning or learning’ face losing their jobseekers allowance. This has been
triumphed by The Daily Express among
others as ‘a return to True Blue values’. If these are true blue values, then I
wholeheartedly hope the UK wants nothing to do with them.
This policy
is a cynical attempt by David Cameron to frame the youth as being lazy and
good-for-nothing in an attempt to appeal to his party’s core vote of older,
conservative voters. He knows full well unemployed under-25-year-olds are not
going to vote Conservative anyway, so he has nothing to lose.
But it
couldn’t be further from the truth. I am 20 years old myself, and had planned
to go to University this year, but for personal and family reasons had to defer
until next year. I want to stress I am not expressing pity for my situation, as
I know I will be one of the people ‘learning’ next year. But I feel it is worth
expressing here to show how simply unjust and untrue the claim that my
generation are lazy and simply do not want to look for work is.
I have had
four jobs since 2010 and have worked hard in all of them. My most recent job I
only left as I had thought I was going to University before circumstances
changed. I achieved A*AB in my A levels and I also have a Level 2 NVQ
qualification in Retail. I am currently unemployed and I have lodged a claim
for jobseeker’s allowance. Since doing this I have spent every day searching
and applying for jobs and have either been turned down for the ones I have
applied for or not heard back. I am a young person with ample work experience
and good qualifications, how hard would it be for a person who only had GCSEs
and experience in one job? Or even less than 5 GCSEs and no previous work
experience.
I have many
friends who have chosen not to go to college or decided it wasn’t for them or
who have left with qualifications and are looking for work. Some are in
employment now and some are not. However, none
of them have chosen to live on the dole. The ones who did find employment took
months to find it and some have been in insecure, low-hour work where they have
often been left unpaid or without enough shifts.
Of course, the
role of government should not be to allow a life on the dole. Everyone agrees
with this. However, the role of government should definitely not be to unfairly
stigmatise a group of society who already find it hard to find jobs which do
not require previous experience of the workplace which they often don’t have.
The youth I know is one of people desperate to find work and afraid of the
stigma of being unemployed, and to withdraw any support from them is
irresponsible and morally bankrupt. If Cameron truly wants to make a future
Britain a ‘land of hope’ then he should treat our age group with some dignity
and respect, and recognise we are the country’s future, and do not deserve to
be treated in this way.
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