We get treated like kids with pocket money wages and pay the poverty premium for it. We\u2019re cheaper to pay and easier to fire. We\u2019ve gone from low pay to no pay. Who are we? We\u2019re the generation that thought we had it all until the crisis showed us our dreams were built on a house of cards.<\/p>\n
Nothing to show for and confused about our future. From teens into NEETS. From generation Y to generation why.<\/p>\n
And now we\u2019re all in this mess together. If we haven\u2019t been made redundant ourselves, then we all know someone who has. We\u2019ve now probably got a greater chance of becoming unemployed than getting swine flu.<\/p>\n
First we saw the figures on the news, then we read the stories of young people on the dole in the papers and now we hear the rumours of colleagues and friends getting the sack.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t look down at all the youngsters who are queuing up for the sales to get glammed up for the weekend, next week they\u2019ll be queuing up for the dole. Instead, look deep into our eyes and you\u2019ll see we\u2019re all doled up with the shame and the scars.<\/p>\n
We pay for not getting fair pay We may be \u201can army of youngsters with nothing to do and nothing to lose\u201d , but we are all skilled up. When we know that youth unemployment costs us \u00a3100 million a month, we know it\u2019s time to stop the unemployed becoming permanently unemployable.<\/p>\n
This fails to address the precariousness of jobs targeted at young people and it exacerbates the exploitation faced by young people in internships or work experience who are asked to work above and beyond what\u2019s legally required of them in return for being paid under the legal minimum wage.<\/p>\n
When people argue that not being paid the minimum wage isn\u2019t important when you consider the invaluable work experience you get when you carry out an apprenticeship or internship, they ignore that young people still have to pay the same levels of rent as anyone else and often have to pay back student debt loans too.<\/p>\n
Like other low earners, we\u2019re forced to pay more for most things, from food to utilities \u2013 the so called \u201cPoverty Premium<\/a>\u201d (@savethechildren). It\u2019s not only discriminatory that the national minimum wage is lower for people under 22, there are even calls that it should be frozen full stop for young people.<\/p>\n Government policies across Europe fail to address the discrimination faced by young people in government schemes where the employer isn\u2019t bound to offer the training or benefits it offers its staff and not bound to offer the opportunity for turning temporary contracts into permanent employment. That\u2019s why we should call for all young people on government supported schemes to be granted the same benefits \u2013 such as training and childcare \u2013 as those in the same workplace as them.<\/p>\n And no political party is contesting the conventional wisdom that it\u2019s acceptable for young recruits to be recruited because they\u2019re cheaper to pay and easier to fire. That\u2019s why we should call for all young people on government supported schemes to be granted the same working rights as those in the same workplace as them.<\/p>\n Shock and awe\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019re not the first generation that has faced shocks or setbacks. In many ways we have been taught we live in a \u201cno risk\u201d society. It\u2019s maybe why we find it more difficult to cope with these shocks and bounce back. As @rowennadavis\u00a0states<\/a>, \u201cBeing hit so hard at the first hurdle, some may be tempted to quite the game together\u201d.<\/p>\n Grant Aherne\u00a0despairs<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s nothing going on. We go and try to find work but there isn\u2019t anything around and that\u2019s very frustrating. When we go to college they just get you to fill in forms but it doesn\u2019t come to anything.\u201d<\/p>\n What does it say about our society when\u00a0career advisors<\/a>\u00a0tell us \u201cYou don\u2019t get jobs by complaining, whining, going on marches or signing petitions. You get jobs by working your ass off\u201d?<\/p>\n That\u2019s we need a focus on support which is both practical \u2013 such as fairer wages to pay back our debt and cover our rent \u2013 and psychological \u2013 like more time to build our skills and our relationships with others.<\/p>\n Rabbit in the headlights or leaders in the spotlight?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n But maybe being in this mess together could be a way of building those relationships. We\u2019re one million unemployed, but are we one million strong? Our generation are more rabbit in the headlights than leaders in the spotlight. 20% youth unemployment and no movement, no struggle; how bad does it have to get?<\/p>\n Are we really in it together? We should all be concerned about each others\u2019 welfare \u2013 that many of our peers are out of work. Yet by targeting the poorest, the government ends up creating a sense of \u201cthem\u201d and \u201cus\u201d which you don\u2019t get with services that benefit everyone. Would so many people have tweet #welovethenhs if they had felt the stigma people feel when claiming benefits?<\/p>\n Across Europe, policies to unemployment and wider welfare reform confuses a \u201ccarrot and sticks\u201d approach to reciprocity. It makes the assumption that those out of work don\u2019t have anything to contribute and therefore are in need of skills to get back into work. It also presumes that by stigmatising them, they will be more likely to take up benefits and comply with its conditions. So much for creating the good society.<\/p>\n The value of out of work benefits relative to average earnings has halved since Thatcher got into power. In fact, if you\u2019re out of work, all you get is \u00a39 per day which would mean you were getting under a quarter of what the public think ought to be \u201ca basic but acceptable standard of living\u201d. As Natasha Cordey says, \u201cAfter I\u2019ve bought my food, gas, water, electricity, television there\u2019s nothing. I can\u2019t get a job in town because I couldn\u2019t afford the bus fare. It\u2019s catch-22 \u201d.<\/p>\n Some things never change. The investment bankers may be sobbing that their bonuses are being taxed, but those most likely to lose their jobs are in the lowest paid occupations \u2013 like sales assistants, manual or care workers and in the neighbourhoods already with the highest unemployment rates. Those sectors and regions hit by the last recessions have not only never really recovered, they have actually suffered the most. They\u2019ve seen the lost decade pass them by and the lost generation all around them.<\/p>\n Being dependent on benefits doesn\u2019t improve people\u2019s confidence or well being, especially if the majority of the community is out of work. So they need to feel they can to access opportunities to improve their skills. But let\u2019s stop giving people the illusion that they can run up the down escalator of social mobility.<\/p>\n \u201cSocial mobility<\/a>\u00a0is painful. If inducements to move \u201cupwards\u201d are delivered from the top down to individuals, rather than generated within communities, those who leave behind their peers may never again feel entirely comfortable in any social group.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019re the people we\u2019ve been waiting for\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Young people out of work have skills and assets that are invaluable to community groups. They have connections in the area and can better understand the experience of others out of work. And they\u2019re already creating alternatives to rebuild a more caring economy \u2013 take this example \u2013 they don\u2019t need lords to tell us that investment banks can be \u201csocially useless<\/a>\u201d, instead they\u2019re creating waffle banks.
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