Lottie Dexter: Help cut toll of youth unemployment that wrecks lives

At 9.30am, around the time Osborne was learning how to use Twitter, a fresh batch of jobs statistics were released revealing another stark jump in youth unemployment which is edging ever closer to the towering one million mark.

The number of 16- to 24-year-olds desperately seeking a first job now totals 993,000; that is nearly twice the population of Manchester.

What’s even worse is that youth unemployment has risen consistently for the last three months – more and more under-25s are being locked out of work for longer; 283,000 have been struggling to nail down a job for more than a year and 107,000 of these have been left without work for more than two years.

This is a worrying trend that shows no signs of easing and its consequences for our future are too damning to ignore.

Unemployment, especially when you’re young, hurts. Youth unemployment ruins lives, breaks families and sinks communities – not to mention the cost to the Exchequer.

It is thought that youth unemployment cost more last year than the entire further education budget for 16-19 year olds. It is a stubborn social problem that will not go away quietly and requires big, bold solutions – solutions that were sorely missing from this Budget.

In his speech, the Chancellor failed to mention young people and youth unemployment at all. Despite a recent Million Jobs poll showing that it is the third most important issue for voters – just below the economy and immigration – the issue isn’t registering on our politician’s radar.

This striver’s Budget was supposedly on the side of people who want to do the right thing and get on, yet it did nothing for the 993,000 young people who want to do exactly that.

There was a fleeting mention of apprenticeships, but the Budget promised no decisive action which would have huge benefits for young people and the economy.

To be fair to Osborne, the Government has cottoned on to the value of apprenticeships, an important realisation – as the average apprentice will 
earn £100,000 more over the course of their lifetime – but those hoping that the Government would build on this in this Budget would have been left sorely disappointed.

More importantly however, there were also some green shoots of hope in the form of an Employment Allowance. This will cut National Insurance contributions for 450,000 small businesses which is exactly the sort of action we need. But why is the Chancellor waiting until 2014 to introduce these changes? Considering the scale of the difficulties facing young people (and everyone else for that matter) these National Insurance changes are needed now.

If George Osborne wanted to target help at the under 25s who get battered in a recession, he would take 16- to 24-year-olds out of National Insurance altogether – this would be a massive incentive for businesses, particularly small firms, to hire them.

Young people could roll onto the register if they start earning over a certain amount, around £16,000 for example.

This is the kind of unambiguous, pro-enterprise action we need to get Britain’s young people going, and these are the types of solutions that people from across the country have been suggesting to me.  

The Million Jobs campaign, which I lead, is appealing for your help. Over the next couple of months we are writing a Youth Employment Manifesto which will be a shopping list of policies that we think must be implemented by the Government in order to crack devastating youth unemployment.

The countdown to Budget 2014 begins now. If you are a small business owner, a parent, a youth worker, if you’re young and unemployed or just have a first class idea, then we want to know what you think. How do we tackle youth unemployment? After all, you see it and feel it. You know best.

We are determined to capture your knowledge and experiences and funnel these into Westminster.

The most innovative and sensible solutions we have received so far come from 
sole traders desperately 
wanting to hire, or youth workers with 20 years of experience under their belt.

Please email [email protected], get in touch on Facebook (facebook.com/millionjobs) or Twitter (@millionjobs_)

There’s no time to waste.