Unemployed 18 to 21 year olds made to do three weeks of training or face having benefits cut
AS PART of the Conservatives’ welfare reforms, young jobseekers will be sent to ‘bootcamps’ in exchange for social security
Conservative minister Matt Hancock, who heads the David Cameron’s ‘earn or learn’ taskforce, will announce plans to place unemployed 18 to 21 year olds on a bootcamp training programme after they submit a welfare claim. Hancock said that this is part of the Conservatives’ “no excuses” approach to social security.
The bootcamp will consist of a three-week training course where young people will be given lessons on interview techniques and job applications.
The scheme is part of a wider move to clamp down on youth unemployment. In the run up to May’s General Election, Cameron announced that young jobseekers would have to undertake work experience, much of which is unpaid, as well as completing job applications, or risk losing social security.
Hancock was quoted in the Guardian stating: “Welfare culture that is embedded in some of Britain’s most vulnerable communities”.
“By working across government to make sure that every young person is in work or training, by opening up three million more apprenticeships, expanding traineeships, and making sure that a life on benefits is simply not an option, we want to end rolling welfare dependency for good, so welfare dependency is no longer passed down the generations.”
He added: “We are absolutely committed to ending long-term youth unemployment and building a country for workers, where nobody is defined by birth and everyone can achieve their potential.”
The Conservatives have reached out Labour leadership hopefuls in a bid to get backing for the proposal.
Welfare expenditure is a sensitive subject matter for the Labour Party in the aftermath of the Conservative Welfare Bill, which passed as a result of much of Labour abstaining .
Andy Burnham has been critical of the policy, and Jeremy Corbyn has said that he would fervently oppose the scheme.
A spokesman from the Corbyn campaign stated : “This is another punitive turn by this Conservative government that is failing young people. They have cut further education places, driven a punitive welfare regime that has failed to reduce youth unemployment, and are raising university fees and taking away grants.
“As it takes away opportunities for young people to earn or learn, this government is blaming young people rather than addressing the real problems. It proposes more free labour from the young with fewer rights, and will be resisted by young people and Labour MPs.”
Neither Yvette Cooper nor Liz Kendall have explicitly opposed the reforms to young people’s social security entitlement, but have stated that they need to be approached in a fairer way.
Picture courtesy of Andrew_Writer