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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that a blanket ban on benefits for under 25s

325 replies

pointythings · 02/10/2013 12:23

Is not only blatantly unfair but also unworkable?

Under a future Tory government, you can leave school at 18, work, lose your job at 23 and be forced straight onto workfare, because you are not eligible for benefits - never mind that you've worked and paid in!

And isn't it blatant age discrimination? Every time I think the Conservatices can't sink any lower, they do...

OP posts:
moominleigh94 · 04/10/2013 07:50
  • Oh, and having a baby wasn't planned or intended. My pregnancy was an accident, but I couldn't face having an abortion. Not all teenage mothers are the same :)
BookFairy · 04/10/2013 08:03

I work with Care Leavers. It would be a disaster. Shall we just house young people in the gutter and be done?

meddie · 04/10/2013 08:13

Moomin I had both my kids return home after uni while job hunting. You are right it was a huge financial burden. I no longer received CB or CTC so financially was worse off than before they left home.
I am a lone parent working in the Nhs but on my single wage had to support 2 extra adults.
My food bill tripled my utilities doubled and I lost my council tax single occupant discount.
They needed help with travel and clothing for interviews. It took 12 months before both got full time jobs both in other parts of the country. Both needed a months rent, months deposit.suitable clothes for work and financial support until their first pay packet.
The jsa they received just about allowed me to stay solvent but the money i had been saving for new windows and central heating was wiped out.
At least I was able to help and they are paying me back but it will take time. Not every family will have that

VoiceofRaisin · 04/10/2013 08:43

As a country, we are overspending and need to cut back....

BUT this policy is awful and discriminatory. Youngsters are human beings too: they need to eat and have a roof over their heads. They have had no chance to accrue savings to fall back on in hard times (I have less sympathy for older people who have made no savings plans for when/if they lose their jobs).

The current system for funding university already throws some youngsters into poverty. Did you know that you cannot borrow enough to even pay for your halls if your parents earn over a certain amount? There may be all sorts of reasons why parents of some are unable/unwilling to pay cash to their adult DC so those students are immediately below the subsistence level. All youngsters should be looked at independently of their parents UNLESS we also change the law to REQUIRE parents to support their DC up until the age of 25.

There are better places to save money than penalising the young purely because of their age (eg the council house lottery win whereby if you were once needy enough to have subsidised housing, you continue to get it for the rest of your life even once you are earning good money - yes, I include pensioners in oversized housing).

YoniBottsBumgina · 04/10/2013 08:46

Care should be increased to 25, clearly. It's just a lifestyle choice that they want to live alone! Confused Shock

BoffinMum · 04/10/2013 10:04

In the US in some areas they have work support packages - I think these are being trialled. Essentially they spend the same on the support as people earn, so it's effectively cost neutral, but the idea is that it's better for people and the economy in the long term to be able to work and hold down a job. I think that's the missing link here - it's all about saving money, but in actual fact it's not saving money, it's pushing up overall expenditure and/or pushing it onto other people/services in the medium term whilst aggravating human misery. That is utterly pointless.

A more realistic approach would be to provide a sensitive service to education leavers of all ages built around their individual prospects, panning out from there, with interview outfits, accommodation deposits and additional training courses all factored into the mix as necessary. (Detail needs working on). But essentially I think there is a consensus that interview costs, commuting costs and a roof over the head are basic needs for people starting out in work, or indeed retraining after a break, and it is counter productive to deny them such things.

And let's get away from this obsession with the age of 25 - it's completely arbitrary and you could immediately reduce the impression of fecklessness by lowering it to 18, for example or increase it by raising the notional age to 30 - it's just playing with figures for the sake of being controversial.

In fact if you looked at people between 60-90, to arbitrarily pick one age group and gender, you would find extraordinary numbers of older women with practically no work history at all, being given subsidised housing, pensions and other benefits in return for nothing at all in terms of contributions over a lifetime. This is where the vast majority of welfare spending disappears, in many multiples of what we spend on the under 25s, but obviously we don't penalise little old ladies because that is seen as mean, unfashionable and loses votes, whereas vilifying the young to save a fraction of this is considered acceptable for some reason.

But if I was going to be really forthright, I would suggest that the Houses of Commons and Lords could stop accepting the fucking up the arse they are getting from the top 1% of asset owners in the UK, and just come up with a policy mechanism for redistributing the ill gotten post 2006 gains of this group. Currently the general idea promulgated by these Gecko type wealth hoovers is that if you go along with it at your lowly level, you might get some of the crumbs off their table at some point, a ride on their yacht or some useful networking or a door opening to you where it might have been shut previously. To appeal to people's consciences they bang on about how much wealth they have created and how many jobs and livelihoods depend on that wealth. I am sorry, in almost all cases they could disappear overnight and the world would not end, because the rest of us have the intelligence to rebuild what was there (as indeed has been done with the banks and so on). They are not indispensible and frankly we don't need people who hoover up all the money but don't play the society game. People who live places like here:

One Hyde Park

So they can masturbate over their trinkets without being bothered by the riff raft. That is not what Britain fought two wars for, that is not our way of life, and we do not need this sort of revolting consumption bollocks on our doorstep. Let's dissolve these lifestyles before we start robbing our own young.

DiamondMask · 04/10/2013 11:08
youretoastmildred · 04/10/2013 12:33

Boffin, you are quite right, and have chosen a spectacularly ugly property to illustrate not only greed but aesthetic crimes that cry out for vengeance.

HolaGuapo · 04/10/2013 13:19

I'm accidentally fell pregnant in May and found out 3 days before I sat my A-level exams. I had a place at a very prestigious university for a very competitive course for this September. I'm now 23 weeks pregnant because I just knew I couldn't have an abortion and I am so, so glad I made the choice to keep my baby. Needless to say, I am not going to university this year. I'm going next year instead.
I was very lucky that I had been working part-time in retail throughout my A-levels and was able to get full time work the minute I found out I was pregnant. My partner is older than me and has been working full-time for 4 years.
However if we lost our jobs tomorrow are we really supposed to starve? How would we pay our rent and how would I clothe my baby and make sure he doesn't freeze in winter? I'm well-educated, I work full-time, so does my partner. Why should the fact we're under 25 automatically render us not able to claim help, especially considering we both pay tax and NI?

dialpforpizza · 04/10/2013 14:13

Fantastic post Boffin. One of the best I've ever read on Mumsnet Smile

pointythings · 04/10/2013 14:19

Cake and Flowers for BoffinMum.

OP posts:
Lj8893 · 04/10/2013 14:22

boffin to be next PM!!!

dialpforpizza · 04/10/2013 14:28
Grin
NotYoMomma · 04/10/2013 14:31

I think Boffin is actually Medhi Hasan in disguise ;p

so eloquent lol

dialpforpizza · 04/10/2013 14:37

They need a bit more swearing in the house of lords. That's where they're going wrong Grin

Darkesteyes · 04/10/2013 17:22

Cake and Thanks for Boffin from me too.

youretoastmildred · 04/10/2013 17:30

Boffin, you wouldn't like to get together with MrsDeVere and start a party would you? (I mean a political party, not gin and canapes, though that would be nice too)

MrsDeVere · 04/10/2013 17:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Darkesteyes · 04/10/2013 17:34

Mrs Devere Sad

youretoastmildred · 04/10/2013 17:42

oh sorry wouldn't have made that flippant post if I had seen yours first, MrsDeVere.

BoffinMum · 04/10/2013 19:29

Thank you everyone. Grin

Mildred, I picked it because it is currently the most expensive property on Rightmove, but I must agree it looks like the Next Directory on acid.

BoffinMum · 04/10/2013 19:31

MrsDeVere, if he has a mother like you he will be just fine. Believe me. Even my DD sorted herself out in the end.

MrsDeVere · 04/10/2013 19:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BoffinMum · 04/10/2013 19:33

If they have a good work ethic and make a big thing of learning about the business they find themselves in, the odds of them getting sorted out to their satisfaction improve greatly.

MrsDeVere · 04/10/2013 20:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.