Tom Gibson, Leeds Socialist Party
One million people aged 18-24 are not in active employment, training or education, and have to rely on benefits or family support to ensure they don’t fall behind on rent, food and other costs.
Keir Starmer’s Labour government’s response to rising levels of unemployed young people – further attacks on the welfare state. This won’t increase employment but will instead drive more young people into poverty, making it harder to find job opportunities, particularly for those with disabilities.
As someone who has finished their degree and is actively trying to find work, it has been tricky. Even finding part-time work has been a struggle. In addition, finding financial support outside of the disability benefits which I receive (under attack by this wretched government) has been very tricky.
Young people are actively trying to find jobs or educational opportunities but, thanks to years of austerity, the decline of industry and the marketisation of universities, as well as rising housing prices and inflation, our living standards are rapidly plummeting. The capitalist system views young people as a resource to be super-exploited with low pay and bad conditions so pushes anti-welfare anti-education policies to “get them to work”.
Being out of employment or education shouldn’t mean being condemned but instead helped, both in regard to education and employment. There should be easier access to training programmes and an increase in well-paid public jobs. Unemployment and disability benefits should be increased and made easier to access. Being able to return to education, a luxury often only the richest can afford, should be accessible to all who want to learn a new subject or change their career path.
I am proud to be in the Socialist Party which stands up to the capitalist narratives around young people, and fights for a system that would enable us all to live a stable and happy life. It’s not ‘shame on young people’ that so many are unemployed, it is a shame on our rotten capitalist system. While young people are stuck in low-paid jobs, substandard education or forced to rely on unemployment benefits, the richest in society are getting richer. The wealth and resources in society could provide decent jobs and decent living standards for all, if that wealth was used to democratically plan society for all our benefit instead of the profits of a few.
