social enterprise

This article is provided courtesy of the news feed at http://www.newstartmag.co.uk/news

Young people unemployed for more than six months are to be guaranteed a job or training, the chancellor announced in his pre-budget report, along with further measures to stop older people ‘drifting’ into permanent unemployment.

In his previous Budget, the chancellor pledged every 18-24 year-old would be guaranteed work or training after 12 months out-of-work. This will now be brought forward and from next month anyone under 24 and unemployed for longer than six months will be guaranteed work or training.

Current support for the school-leavers includes a place in education or training for 16 and 17 year-olds still unemployed after six months.

Funding will be provided to continue the scheme for school-leavers again from next September.

Alistair Darling said unemployment had increased ‘much less than expected by independent forecasters,’ with a short spell in unemployment ‘not turning into a lifetime on benefits, as happened in the recessions of the 1980s and 90s’.

The National Housing Federation’s chief executive David Orr said: ‘Any major drive to create workplace opportunities for young adults will be of vital importance and will be welcomed by the nation’s housing associations, many of whom house thousands of people in unemployment hot spots up and down the country.’

Support for 10,000 graduates from lower income families was also announced in the pre-budget report, providing internships in careers that may otherwise have been out of reach.

Meanwhile the over-50s are to receive specialist and tailored support, to equip them with the confidence and skills needed to get a job, said the chancellor, with those who want to stay working part-time after they reach retirement age being ‘encouraged’ to do so.

Those aged over 65 will see a reduction in the minimum number of hours needed to work to be eligible to receive Working Tax Credit.

‘In the past, older people were allowed – indeed often encouraged – to drift into permanent unemployment,’ said the chancellor. ‘We can’t afford to write off this experience.’

The measures will be funded by the one-off 50% tax on bankers' bonuses of £25,000 or more, which was also announced. Paid by the bank, not the employee, Mr Darling said he was ‘determined to claw money back for the taxpayer’ from banks that insisted on paying substantial individual discretionary rewards to ‘already high-paid staff’.