Apprenticeship £5.25ph, no free prescription/dental/opticians and no child benefit

[SamBeckettslastleap]

I take it MN will think this is perfectly reasonable but I think it is dreadful that a child on half the minimum wage will have to pay prescription cost/dentist/eyesight.

They also don't get child benefit, or UC/TCs so in low income families will have to pay rent.

How is this fair? Traditionally it is lower income families that go into apprenticeship at 16 .

However if they are home educated (in any form no checks) or go to college and not apprenticeship (some courses are 9 hours a week) they get it all, and could be earning significantly more in PT jobs.

Yep, there was an apprenticeship advertised in my town. Full time for a year, and at the end you get a level 2 certificate in food hygiene. The role was basically making tea and serving customers. An absolute joke

Just looked at what is in my area now. A 15 month long apprentice to be bar staff in a pub. You could not make it up.
Also, a barista in a coffee shop.

There is a huge variety in apprenticeships.

our 17 year old has just started one and is on just over £20,000 pa, plus being signed up to a pension scheme. They are doing the pass plus through work which will lower their own own car insurance. So far it’s looking like being a great choice.

There are still an element of crappy apprenticeship programmes on offer, but look around February each year (national apprenticeship week) and you’ll see some fantastic ones. I know because I have spent the last 9 years advertising them. 4 year electrical and mechanical maintenance apprenticeships, which offer a BTEC and HNC and have a start salary of £9.50 ph, with pay rises each year. 5 year quantity surveying and project management apprenticeship, with a starting salary of £22k at 18.

There are also lots of level 2 apprenticeships that I offer for those who are not as academic, but can lead to great careers and they start on £9.50 an hour too.

Look at companies like BT, Mace, Tarmac, PWC, Balfour Beatty and lots of legal organisations.

Just hsd the same thing,basic apprentice wage.Sent off the forms along with wage slips,didnt hear anything back so rang them.Apparantly he was over the limit even though its basic wage.What's the point of applying for apprentices when they're just going to get turned down?He can't earn any less than he's on!
It does piss you off when they"re working/college for 40 hours a week and trying to better themselves and get fuck all help.Alot of his friends haven"t bothered with further education or any thing and get more help,makes you wonder why you bother.Anyway he"s just had to cancel his appointments to replace a broken retainer as it costs too much and he can"t afford it.shit times.

I don’t think someone on an apprenticeship needs free prescriptions, dental care or opticians. It is £800 per month minimum for apprenticeship roles and as a 16 year old , they won’t have many outgoings.

It's plenty to live on with low outgoings and the vast majority of young people don't need prescriptions or expansive dental work. A check up is £20 twice a year and some dentists seem to be changing to nine monthly or yearly now. Pre-paid certificate works out to £8 a month. It's hardly going to break the bank. Honestly some people just want everything for free.

It's not about wanting everything for free.It's more about there's no incentive to work when you don't get any help but you get help if you don't bother.
Even a percentage off ,just a bit of help.
He's got driving lessons to pay for and rent,plus saving up for a car and the rumning of it he also buys his own clothes,toiletries etc so can'tsay he's not got any outgoings.

Let him off paying rent then. If you are on UC there is no non dependent deduction on the parents rent element until a young person turns 21, so it's not like the amount the parents get towards their rent changes.

I don't claim anything at all.I literally take £20 a week off him to cover what I would have got in child benefit_this goes towards my council tax.If I could afford to let him off with it or help him out more I honestly would.

Apprentices are often a cost to a business, even before you consider their salary. They’ll often not be producing much, their training costs the firm a lot, and they take up the time of the staff who would otherwise be adding to the profitability, so it’s fair that they don’t also get the same wage as someone who’s not incurring these costs.

The incentive is that they are gaining valuable skills. When I was gaining the skills that qualified me for my career I wasn’t getting paid anything at all.

Out of these pension, rugby club and gym are luxury items on an apprentice wage, most students wouldn't have these, plus it must be a luxury car if tax is that much. A cheap small car would cost a lot less to run and insure. Same goes for a phone bill of £15 a month. So he could reduce that by £150-200 a month if he had to.

Perhaps there should be loans available similar to higher education?

I’m a bit confused by this. Isn’t the
apprenticeship paying min wage for a 16 year old? I make no comment on the rights and wrongs of that but it’s what my 17 year old gets paid in their part time job. It’s not a special low rate being applied because they are an apprentice.

Exactly

Given that a pensioner who has paid 40 years of NI and receives the old basic pension gets about that to live on.
Even with a home mortgage free - there is council tax, house insurance, utilities, food etc. They have to manage and cannot increase their income.

A young apprentice can expect to reap financial reward in a couple of years - assuming they are doing a 'useful' apprenticeship.

£5.28 an hour is the apprenticeship wage.

Small firms pay nothing towards training, medium about 5% and over 2 million wage bill pay a lot.

Er, no.

They'll be earning age appropriate minimum wage, will have debts from supporting themselves for the previous year and will have to study further at some expense

Really not true as a blanket statement. Do you mean the L4/5/6 apprenticeships in IT or Engineering or Accounting are a joke?

is it the apprenticeship wage for an 18 year old?

Yes £4.81 an hour.The point being though they get told to apply for nhs help with health costs as an apprentice but then get turned down because they earn too much.They can"t earn any lower than this though,its the basic wage ,so whats tje point of applying for it?

But they do. The apprentice is taking up space that could be put to profitable use, and uses the firm’s resources such as HR, payroll etc.

They will be getting £200/week which is pretty good. Even if they paid £100/week towards the house costs.

I think people need to factor in that once children reach a certain age they will lose things like child benefit & tax credits.

Surely if children are teenagers the parent can work FT to make sure they are earning enough to cover bills? I think UC is supposed to be a stop gap while children are young & need a parent home.

I think the years between 16-20 the parents end up picking up a lot of the extra costs, usually while getting less money towards supporting them if they have needed CB and TC/UC. I've found it the most expensive part of parenting of any other age.

Hopefully there are ways of meeting the costs of prescriptions etc that are outside of the 'being in education part' - although technically an apprentice is still in education, it's just that they get a little money towards it - which covers transport, clothing, PPE etc.

I think there needs to be better provision for the 16-20yo group. There is no longer help towards transport costs. It cost my DD £320 a term in bus fares to college because we are rural. They are meant to stay in education until 18/19 but they are no longer supported to be in education as they are starting to be treated as adults. Yet parents are still expected to pick up all the extra costs even those on low incomes who have been receiving support. It can be hard for youngsters to get jobs that earn enough to pay their way at 19/20 when straight out of college even with an apprenticeship.

We do both work and claim nothing,but to have to cover an extra load of precriptions,dental treatment,opticians etc is just too much.We pay in full for our own already.We help where we can but we cant't do everything.
Agree about the bus /train fares to college,again no help with that so have to pay full fare,it all adds up.