By Youth Ambassador Jack Welch
As the dust settles from Chancellor George Osborne’s first Budget for the highest majority Conservative government in nearly 20 years, the picture looks pretty mixed. For young people today, many will see this as a bad deal for them. The cuts to housing benefit for under-21s, except the most vulnerable, and for poorer students hoping to go to university from next year onwards, their Maintenance Grants will become loans, which will have to be repaid alongside tuition fees after graduation.
While it is good news the devolution agenda for regions in the UK is still making progress, there have been no announcements regarding areas such as local public transport. This is vital for young employees who regularly have to travel to work or attend meetings at Job Centres if unemployed, for example. In our call to action to the new government after the election, keeping essential costs such as travel was important to 33% of young voters. We urge the government and relevant departments to consider the growth of youth mobility if they are to be trapped by spiralling costs.
In addition, the introduction of a National Minimum Wage of up to £9 by 2020 would have acted as much needed good news for young people already concerned about their prospects. However, with workers only over 25 guaranteed to be given this rise and young employees under 20 paid less than £6 an hour, there will probably be less to celebrate for a young person having to live off the national minimum wage already. We hope this will change in time as the changes begin to take effect.
The best news from this Budget was the commitment to not increase taxes on VAT or National insurance and for that to be bound by law. Many low paid workers, including young people, will feel some relief that their wages will not be impacted further by further tax rises. If the government though wishes young people to ‘earn or learn’, measures which punish access to welfare protection are insufficient if a situation of full employment is ever to be achieved and the stagnation to youth unemployment ends.
