Now CABs are Closing. This is Just a War on the Poor Isn't It?

employ

happyinherts. I'm sorry if you thought that I was addressing you when I spoke about being poor, I did not.
The reason your son and thousands of other young people cannot get work, is that many employers now only seem to emloy foreign labour. I asked both Costa Coffee and Mcdonalds why they both did not have any British workers they told me that English did not apply for the jobs, I was very sceptical with this reply. I believe that employers wrongly believe a foreign workforce is more reliable and hard working than the indigineous Brit.
The jobless situation has been greatly increased by mass immigration.
Jack Straw and Tonly Blair both orchestrated mass immigration for the following reasons 1) To rub the Tories noses in diversity (according to Andrew Neather who worked for them. 2) To help friends in business to drive down wages and make more profit. 3) To hopefully get them more votes, as foreigners historically have voted Labour.
Increasing the size of the EU has not helped either. If you think your son cannot get a job now, wait til Turkey joins the EU, they have over 72 million people, double the amount of the Polish population. They will all head to the South East. The EU has over 7 other countries wanting succession to the EU that's about another 172 million who could possibly come here. The job situation can only get worse.
I wish your son the best of luck, I know its hard as my niece sent over 200 application before getting a job.

Imright - I resent the statement of you were poor and it didn't stop you from working.

My son has applied for 200 jobs and got one response that says no thank you. He can't do voluntary work because oddly enough they have also rejected him as he has no experience. I have seen people employed in local shops with little grasp of English - now how they have managed it is completely beyond me when our youngsters with prospects don't appear to get very far.

My son has to run at least 75 miles a week as part of his athletic targets. He hopes to study four AS levels. IF he could get a job, something has to be sacrificed. Is that right just because he has a poor background? We have an income less than that to qualify for free school meals, yet he won't qualify for the new college bursary which students on free school meals will automatically get. Do you know why this is? It is because we are working instead of being unemployed. Working poor ignored, despised and unrewarded by this government yet their labours are vital.

Ema encouraged loads of poorer kids into FE

Getting rid of it smacks of we don't want your sort any more

Answer to OP: duhhhhhhh yeah of course this is a war on the poor. Can't believe you people are still debating this on t'internet and aren't out on the streets protesting. Where I live we're starting a revolution on monday @ 18.30. I'm bringing the baby. See you there, suckers.

now my daughter is 18, there is no way she can afford it and i certainly can't
WHAT can't she afford? What is she having to pay for that she can't afford?

I completely agree that the whole 'well I managed so why can't they' argument is completely erroneous. We are living in an entirely different world from when the majority of us were teenagers/students.
Maybe we should look at the causes, why are "we living in an entirely different world"? Why not address the root cause, instead of trying to ease the symptoms?

I think the point is, Solopower, that it's not so much about getting more young people into FE/HE, but getting the right ones in - which means the brightest ones- not necessarily the ones who have the most resources and who know full well that their families will be able to help them out when they struggle with the debts they will be inevitably saddled with after 2 years at FE college and 3/4 years at University. The young people who will lose out are the bright ones with fewer resources to afford the transport and equipment costs and who's families do not have those aspirations for them. The ones who have been brought up to live within their means and not take on debts they can't afford to repay.

I completely agree that the whole 'well I managed so why can't they' argument is completely erroneous. We are living in an entirely different world from when the majority of us were teenagers/students.

Surely the more young people in FE/HE the better> Otherwise there would be even fewer jobs for everyone else.

And I agree with other posters: If you had it hard, that's a bad thing, surely, and an argument for trying to make it easier, not harder, for other people.

So the argument against poor students getting EMA seems to be based on the criteria that 'I didn't get it when I was a student." How utterly selfish.

Demands on the poor have increased dramatically over the years and therefore it's getting more and more difficult. 6th form colleges now require you to pay for more than schools ever did. I'm not talking about university and fees here, just 6th form and 6th form colleges for which EMA was brought in to help towards costs. Fares in some parts of the country are astronomical for a low income family. I'm sad people see investing in the future as paying students to go to school, and the I'm alright Jack attitude is quite frankly just as bad as the politicians stance on it. People would soon change their view if they lost their jobs and were forced into minimum wage work with teenagers requiring equipment for college, fares, etc....

In what way will people not be able to go onto HE? Fees don't have to be paid upfront.

TD - in that case you do seem to be way behind the times. When I went to HE, i.e. university, my father had to pay a total of £2,300. I rememeber that, though it was some years ago , because he really couldn't afford it. But he did pay it, God bless him. But it WAS an issue, even then.

Fast fwd to 2011/12, and we have a ridiculous hike in tuition fees (£9,000?) and a MASSIVE rise in renting costs, and it will mean/does mean by dint of incomes that the eligible young people who will be able to go to HE will be reduced, although they will be just as suitable by academic judgement.

So is it fair to say that EMA only needs to exist because of mass immigration?

I know plenty of people that went onto FE and HE whose parents did not have much money, it really was never an issue.

It's like Tory bingo on this thread. I've got a line. Eyes down for a full house..

imright - what jobs? There are none. Where do you live? Everything is closing down where I am.

'work' a four letter word I try to avoid using on here....in case I'm shot down in flames!

Perhaps TartyDoris.Immigrants have taken all the Saturday jobs that children used to have before they were paid to go to school! In fact what's wrong with getting a Saturday job? There seem plenty of foreigners doing this jobs in pound shops/cafes/McDonalds etc. Paying children to attend school was and is not viable.
Happyinherts. People have always paid 'mortgage,council tax, transport costs' etc. The difference was that people like me, when we were young got jobs whilst in school. I and many people I knew were extremely poor, it did not stop us working! People should not expect handouts from the state, they should try to get jobs!

Why does no other country feel the need to pay children to go to school? What is it about Britain that makes it necessary?

THERE WE ARE!
You don't think it's a valid point?

I'm sad you see it as paying people to go to school - I see it more as investing in future talent that may go unnoticed as parents wage packets have been swallowed up in mortgage, council tax and transports costs against a tide of cutbacks. If you dont invest in young talent, what do you have?

this is like putting the poor in the middle of a mined maze, then taking away the map

custard and ttosca- I wuvs you, I does

My family didn't have much money but I managed to stay on at school because I had 2 p/t jobs. The idea that we should be paid to go to school wouldn't have even have occured to us, it's crazy. No other country does it to the best of my knowledge.

The problem IMO is that immigrants are doing the jobs that 6th formers and students would previously have done.

Thanks solopower, yes i agree with you. All teenagers from lower income families - say around less than £16K who used to qualify for EMA but don't now. It is so short sighted to cut money from youngsters - they are our future