Labour wants to slash £3 billion from welfare as part of its Get Britain Working plan (Picture: Wikimedia/Creative Commons)
As Labour’s mission to boost growth hits the buffers, it’s turning on young unemployed people as an easy scapegoat. The government confirmed on Saturday that it will unveil reforms to benefits as part of its “Get Britain Working” plan.
Over half a million young people are unemployed and looking for work—and this figure is on the rise. But there is also a growing number who are unable to work, including because they’re disabled or have health conditions.
For Labour work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, the blame lies with them. She has suggested that some people have “self-diagnosed” mental health problems or are simply refusing to take up training or work opportunities.
But 24 year-old Lily told Socialist Worker that the bosses aren’t giving her a chance. She has been unemployed for six months and has been looking for work. She has a degree. But even with qualifications, bosses want a year or two of experience that she doesn’t have.
“It’s very depressing to be constantly applying for jobs and not hearing back—not even that you haven’t got the job,” she said. “It’s bleak. I have done 30 applications in two weeks and heard back from two of them.”
Lily explained that bosses wouldn’t make the adjustments she needs due to a chronic fatigue health condition. “I need something that won’t put too much pressure on me, that won’t burn me out” she said.
She added, “There are few places that will accommodate your needs. If you want to work part time, you end up not working part time. Most places want you to do an extra day and you end up giving up all of your time.
“There’s this idea that you are just lazy and you must have all this spare time. They will just pile more work onto you.”
Maria had a similar experience of trying to find work. “Employers don’t even acknowledge the application. It’s like throwing bottles in the sea,” she told Socialist Worker. “You get interviews but some don’t even bother emailing to tell you that you didn’t get the job.”
Labour says it will revamp jobcentres to make them more oriented on giving careers advice, rather than administering benefits. The government talks about a Youth Guarantee, a selection of apprenticeships and training opportunities—many of which already exist.
Maria’s experiences make her sceptical about this. “The jobcentre sent me to a job fair. But none of the jobs offered were for anything I was qualified to do,” she said.
“There was one company and one position, but it was an apprenticeship. I went to the place they told me, but spent most of the day waiting around. Everyone involved knew I was wasting my time sitting around.”
If young people can’t find a job, Labour presents it as a personal failing. And then they face the prospect of benefit cuts and sanctions as the government tries to slash £3 billion from the welfare budget.
Maria said, “I’ve been laid off several times. I’ve been consistently told that it’s not my fault, they just didn’t need me any more. Then you show up at the jobcentre and you get treated like you are the one who is not doing enough.
“They would book a phone appointment and call much later than they said they would. And they’d say you missed the appointment if you didn’t pick up the phone. Then they would threaten sanctions for missing a call when it’s not your fault.
“They will push you into jobs that are not paid enough. After a certain period of being unemployed, they will push you to get any job at all costs”.
Fourteen years of Tory cuts, poverty pay and increasing workloads mean jobcentre workers cannot provide the help unemployed workers and benefit claimants need. And the government and managers don’t see that as the role of jobcentres anyway, pushing them to sanction more claimants.
Young people were sold the lie that, as long as they worked hard at school, they’d have a great career that they are passionate about.
The number of job vacancies has fallen by 143,000 over the last year. Many bosses are less willing to hire particularly younger and inexperienced workers and disabled people as they want to maximise profits. Many will find themselves employed on precarious contracts.
On top of this, many young people face a cost of living crisis, including soaring transport and housing costs that limit their options. The post-16 education system is in crisis. High staff workloads and redundancies in colleges and universities will make them less able to offer careers advice.
Lily says “jobs with good pay and benefits don’t exist”. “Even the types of jobs that were secure and well paid in the past are not like that anymore,” she said.
“When I think about my future and a career, I don’t see that happening. I had quite a few hopes, but now I have to readjust my expectations.”
Her hopes have been dashed by over 40 years of neoliberalism, free market policies that fuel low wages, soaring rents and bills and the lack of decent jobs. That was turbocharged under Tory austerity and now Keir Starmer’s Labour won’t break with that legacy.
The money’s there to provide decent well-paid jobs for all, but it requires an assault on corporations, the rich and their profit system. Unions have to fight the Starmer government’s drive for austerity mark 2 and demand an alternative.
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