We all know
that whichever party is in power after
the election, life is going to get a lot harder with tax rises
of one sort or another and cuts in services. There are a lot
of people out there who have lost their jobs, and have little
hope of finding employment for some time. They are claiming
benefits to which they are entitled through the National Insurance
contributions they have paid in the past.
I have talked to a lot of people who have always worked, and
lost their jobs. They feel many emotions, anger at losing
their jobs through no fault of their own, frustration at the
lack of available jobs, despair that they cannot support their
families to the standard they have been accustomed to, worry
that there is a possibility that they may lose their home,
and probably most of all they feel they have lost their dignity
and self respect.
Now I am not going to talk politics,
BUT, during the sixties and seventies
they were a couple of schemes that appeared to remedy the
above situation, and help industry expand. The government
of the day, faced with mounting payments for the unemployed,
and lack of growth in industry, brought out a scheme where
they would pay companies to employ those workers who were
on the dole.
This
gave companies both large and small a real incentive to expand
and create more jobs. The
scheme was very simple; the government used the money they
would have to pay for the basic unemployment benefits, and
gave it to the company for up to a year to help pay the wages
of any one they employed, who had been out of work for a certain
length of time.
This gave an incentive to companies to expand, most of all
it gave the unemployed person a real job, and gave them their
self respect back again. The cost so far to the British taxpayer,
the same as keeping that person unemployed, except that now
the government would make money from the previously unemployed
on their National insurance contributions, and their income
tax.
I can hear you saying,
that’s all well and good but these
jobs will be on minimum wages. True some will, but there are
various schemes to boost the income of the low paid, as they
do for people on the dole. It is still giving self respect
back to the previously unemployed and security for 12 months,
enough time to look round for a better job.
Your next objection,
let me guess: the employer will sack
these people after 12 months? Is this a realistic objection?
Take it from the employers viewpoint, he has had the benefit
of evaluating this worker for 12 months, the employer has
created meaningful employment, and has increased his profits.
Do you think the employer is going to ring the new customers
he has been servicing for the last 12 months and say; sorry
we aren’t going to supply you anymore, because our staff
will cost us more. I don’t think so! In 12 months time
the economic climate should have improved, one could say partly
because of this scheme.
The other scheme that
was around at about the same time was aimed at the young unemployed.
The Youth Opportunity Scheme. This gave young people the chance
of extra training after leaving school, then a placement with
a company for 12 months. What the employer got was a partially
trained enthusiastic employee for a year for free; the employee
was paid from the government. The employer then had 12 months
in which to train the young person
up to a standard acceptable to the employer, before giving
them a contract of employment. This scheme was open to a lot
of abuse, but maybe something along similar lines could be
made available to the present so called ‘Lost Generation’
Vic
Farron RFT
Express
