Can we talk about NEETs?

[MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack]

Sorry if there's a thread already and I've missed it. But I want to talk about NEETs.

Apparently, we are potentially going to have 1.25million young people not in employment, education or training by the early 2030s. This is quite an alarming number, and it feels like we're failing an entire generation - both the NEETs themselves, who don't seem to have very much going on in their lives that might give them a sense of satisfaction or achievement, but also their working peers who will presumably end up having to support them via the tax system.

I really don't want this to be a thread with lots of judgement or criticism of these young people - it seems to me that we must have failed them somehow as a society. I also want to steer clear of party politics if we can. But I really want to understand why we have so many young people in this position right now.

Does anyone have a child in this situation who would be willing to share why they find themselves in this position? What are the barriers to them studying or getting at least a part time job? Are they happy with how things are right now? Are they trying to change their situation? What do they actually do all day? Are they surrounded by friends who are in the same position? What do they do about money? And what do you feel about the whole situation as a parent?

If anyone is willing to share, I really hope we can avoid a pile-on in which the young people and/or their parents are subjected to a character assassination. I would like an honest and frank exchange of views and experiences because I do genuinely want to understand the root causes of this issue, but if it descends into blame and fingerpointing, then the whole conversation will get derailed.

For full disclosure, I do have a dc in the middle of the 16-24 age group, but neither she nor any of her friends fall into this category.

Just finished reading a book about Louis Wain, the cat artist who spent his final years in an asylum. Current thinking is that he showed every sign of autism.

There are many through history where it has been questioned.

I don’t think posters should be witch hunting immigrant communities or those with ND or MH difficulties- the NEET situation is impacting all sorts of young people.

If you're sofa surfing you most definitely do need benefits, your situation says you're currently unable to house yourself. There's no shame in it, your situation is one of those that benefits are for.

You can claim UC and you should so long as savings are under £16k, it'll give you NI credits towards the state pension, apart from anything else. You apply online. It won't be a lot, especially if you have over £6k in savings, but once you've found a place to rent you'll get housing costs in addition to the basic UC.

Since you're staying with friends, if you have one with a spare room who would be happy to have you as a lodger, all they have to do is provide you with an official signed agreement and you can claim the housing costs. Templates for licence to occupy agreements are available online, it's not the same as a tenancy and you have basically no rights so no eviction issues if they ever change their mind.

You can also apply to the council, both as homeless (you are, if you're sofa surfing) for temporary accommodation, help to sign up to the council flat bidding list and help with paying a bond/deposit for a private rental if you/they find one who'll take you.

Once housed you can apply for council tax single occupancy discount and council tax reduction for low income.

Utility providers may also offer discounts.

He lived a successful life as an illustrator. Was an assistant master at the West London school of art. Gave that up when he was offered a post as an illustrator on a magazine. Was married and widowed. Emigrated to the US for years. He was a popular artist who did commissions, illustrated and wrote childrens books, his work was used in advertisements and postcards.

Sustained a head injury in 1914 at the age of 54 and ten years later at the age of 64 was committed to an asylum.

Are you using his life as an example of Autistic people being committed to asylums because of Autism?

Because I don't think he's a good example.

I’ve just been looking at the apprentice scheme for work online and seen under 21 or apprentices under 24 earning below £50,270 companies don’t pay NI contributions.

Yes, I am.

But thanks for telling me what I already know.

Historically, many autistic individuals and children were placed in asylums or long-stay "mental defective" institutions. Because autism was not formally diagnosed until the mid-20th century, many were misdiagnosed with "childhood schizophrenia,"intellectual disabilities, or labeled as "unmanageable," resulting in decades of institutionalization and profound human rights abuses.

Autistic women were highly vulnerable to institutionalization, though they were rarely diagnosed with autism. Instead, their autistic traits were misinterpreted, leading to misdiagnoses of "hysteria," "moral insanity," or schizophrenia, frequently resulting in asylum confinement

PS not sure how much you know about his marriage, his family ir his bankruptcies.

In the past a lot of women at the less obviously affected end of ND would have gone unnoticed for another reason too. Until about the past 20 years, one salary was adequate to support a family. If your wife got repeatedly fired or too stressed out to be any use at home due to work, she simply wouldn't have worked and that would have been fine both financially and social acceptability.

To the poster begins with z (sorry I CBA to scroll to find you) who's spouting bollox. Yes people were in asylums with verbal ability. Including people with down syndrome, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, dementia etc too.
People's ND may have gone undiagnosed but doesn't mean they weren't in asylums. All the words we now use as insults - moron, cretin, idiot, etc - way back in the mists of time these were medical diagnosis for mental issues. It's not only psychotic people who were in asylums. It was anyone not coping with the basics of survival who's families couldn't/didn't want to care for them.
You could also have tried reading beyond the first few lines of my post that you quoted. You know, the parts where I explained why the people with problems but not badly enough affected to be in asylums were better able to work than they are today.
I didn't say ALL people with autism. So stop coming for me with your own lack of reading and comprehension.

Sorry, I am foreign....sofa surfing for me means sitting on a sofa, internet surfing

ps: I am gladly taking the advice because no one ever knows. Our mortgage is not paid off and my husband is getting on with the years...so no one ever knows

Yes, but they have to be formal apprenticeship schemes, overseen by colleges or other approved training organisations, and involve lots of form filling and bureaucracy. It doesn't cover smaller businesses who aren't wanting staff on a formal apprenticeship scheme. Formal apprentice schemes are hard to find. Some local colleges, ours included have a VERY limited number of places for plumbing, electricians and mechanics which are hard to get onto. You're usually fine if you have a "Big" employer like BNFL or BAE within commuting distance, but out in the regions with few, if any, big employers, and often just one small college offering "trades" apprentices, you're stuffed!

The formalisation of apprenticeship schemes was another "sounds good in theory" policy, but really doesn't match the old fashioned ways of having lots of small employers taking on one or two youngsters every year and training them up in house.

You could have looked it up?

whitefluffydog
Just so you know, "sofa surfing" is the term used to describe sleeping on various friends sofas, moving on to a different friend every few days/weeks. It's what homeless people with friends or family often do to avoid sleeping on the streets. It doesn't mean pointlessly using the internet while sat on the sofa, we call that "doom scrolling".

I do know the expression, may be just forgot to add, sitting on my bum on the sofa, internet surfing, looking at job offers

No, I never doom scroll. LOL. I do only practical, educational or entertainment internet usage

Ok, so internet surfing is just looking up any odd rubbish ?? If I was young, Brit and unemployed and on this thread, I would be prime example why 😆

You might have heard the expression but you don't understand it. See my post above.

Edit: sorry I cross posted with you. Internet scrolling in general isn't doom scrolling. It's the pointless social media and website browsing for no purpose, that's stealing people's time and mental health away, that's doom scrolling.

Yes, I did...I have read all the posts replying to mine

Also depends on the seriousness of the autism. Just being autistic doesn't mean you can't have a relatively normal life, job, relationship, etc. It's a spectrum after all. It would have been the more serious/extreme cases that ended up with the sufferer in an asylum. I've worked with people with an autism diagnosis, and went to school with some who I now realised were autistic, but just didn't know at the time, and they were living relatively normal lives, one being a senior tax manager as his autism made him brilliant with the fine detail of tax law and tax cases and memory of previous tax cases, etc - like a walking encyclopedia - pretty sure he'd not have been in an asylum!

Autism impacts life significantly and has a high threshold. I had a male family member with a family and job which it impacted massively, he was in and out of institutions .He was insanely bright but could only keep menial jobs to survive. Considering how more flexible life is today I thank we can assume life back then would have been tough particularly for autistic women who would meet the threshold today.

Right.

Still not sure what this has to do with a very successful man institutionalised in his 60s after a head injury. In the early 20th century. And none of those female labels applied.

And that's who we're talking about.

the gov website I’ve just come across implies it’s all under 21’s earning under the 50k.

The apprentice scheme covers 21-24 and that’s exactly why my work didn’t take one on before but there’s a new one they’ve got one specifically for small businesses. It’s been the one I’m looking up.
you do have to use a formal training company to assess which is the bit I’m struggling to get figures for.

Reading books.

Like you said you did..

Indeed I did. End.