Tory plan to axe underneath 25s’ advantages ‘oblivious’ to the cruel poverty younger folks face
Experts and campaigners criticised the plans as being an ‘attention-grabbing’ tick-box approach that fails to address the barriers young people face when trying to get jobs
Kemi Badenoch’s plans would see under 25s who can work only able to access benefits if they take part in a Get to Work scheme(Image: Getty Images)
Tory plans to axe benefits from under 25s if they have not worked continuously for six months are “oblivious” to the harsh conditions facing young people living in poverty, experts warn.
Under the proposals for a “tough love” approach, unemployed people aged 16-24, who are able to work, must enrol on a new Get to Work scheme to be able to claim financial support.
To receive the “Get to Work allowance”, which will replace Universal Credit, they will have to attend job centres on a daily basis, and take part in work experience placements, training courses or community work schemes through local councils.
After six months on Get to Work, young people still seeking to claim Universal Credit but not working will drop down to the Subsistence Allowance, worth 70% of their previous claim. Young people who are able to work will not be able to receive any welfare if they don’t take part in the scheme.
Experts and campaigners criticised the plans as being an “attention-grabbing” tick-box approach that fails to address the barriers young people face when trying to get jobs.
They warned that cutting youngsters’ benefits would mimic how austerity drove people into poverty and called for targeted employment support that treats people with “dignity”.
The Conservative’s announcement comes ahead of the party’s annual conference in Birmingham, which kicks off on Sunday. Getting young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEETs) has been a key topic across all the major political parties’ conferences this year, amid a record one million NEETs. A review by former Labour minister Alan Milburn on the crisis is due to publish its final report this autumn.
Jen Clark, Amnesty International UK’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Lead, said: “This attention grabbing ‘tough love’ approach is oblivious to the realities of the job market and the harsh conditions facing young people living in poverty. We already know that punitive sanctions do not help young people move into work.
“Young people are disproportionately sanctioned on Universal Credit, yet many continue to struggle to find secure employment, even the DWP’s research shows this.
“People need social security and employment support that protects them with dignity, not a system that punishes them for not being able to make ends meet.”
Helen Barnard, director of policy and research at Trussell, warned that threatening to remove people’s support would only make it harder for them to find jobs, saying: “Universal Credit already falls well short of what people need to afford the essentials like food, bills and toiletries – and it’s forcing people to food banks. When you’re struggling to pay for food and keep a roof over your head – the threat of losing financial support makes it harder, not easier, to find and keep a job.”
She went on: “We’ve got years of evidence of the failings of a tick-box approach. Meetings with over-stretched work coaches are already too short and often do little to actually move people into training or work. We need more meaningful, good quality support, not simply more of the same.”
Child Poverty Action Group’s director of policy Sara Ogilvie added: “If we learnt anything from the austerity era it’s that cutting social security support drives up child poverty and cuts young people off from opportunity.
“Much better training and employment support is needed but blocking access to universal credit would not remove young people from jeopardy, it would dig the most disadvantaged deeper into hardship.”
Two thirds of young disabled people with complex needs say that jobcentres do not offer the support they need to overcome the barriers they face, according to an August survey of young disabled people with complex needs aged 16 to 25 by disability charity Sense.
Some 72% say there are too few jobs that meet their needs and 71% want more specialist employment support.
Harriet Edwards, Director of Influencing at Sense, which supports disabled people with complex needs, said: “Too many young disabled people with complex needs who want to work are being denied the opportunity because of the barriers they face. We welcome policies that support more young disabled people into employment, but ‘tough love’ and threatening young people with financial hardship if they cannot find work is the wrong approach.”
Haroon Chowdry, Chief Executive of the Centre for Young Lives think tank said: “No young person should be written off or left to languish on welfare without support to get into work, training, or education. But this is a complex crisis without a single quick fix. This national emergency demands a wide-ranging package of policies that together provide every young person with the help they need to enter employment or take up training or education.”
Kemi Badenoch said the benefits system is “unfair to the people who get up and go to work”. “It’s unfair to the people who get up and go to work, having others earn more than them for not working,” she told The Spectator magazine. “Even families on benefits know that the system is out of control. But no one wants to be the one to get off the treadmill first. We need to force that. Government has to do that.”
