News
Scheme launched to help more than 400,00 young people....
Published on 1st December 2011 by Marie Bliss
Employers in line for £2,275 wage subsidy to hire long-term jobless
Nick Clegg today launched a £1 billion scheme to help more than 400,000 young jobless people into employment and training.
The Youth Contract initiative will provide 160,000 six-month wage subsidies plus increase the number of internships and apprentices for under-25s over the next 2 years. The scheme offers private-sector employers taking on an intern/apprentice who has been unemployed for more than 9mths will be given a subsidy of £2,275 to cover half the cost of the national minimum wage for six months.
In addition to the 160,000 job opportunities promised, a further 250,000 work experience placements (each lasting up to eight weeks) will be offered to young people who have been on jobseeker’s allowance for more than three months.
Clegg said: “This is a £1 billion package and what’s different about it is that is gets young people into proper, lasting jobs in the private sector. But it’s a contract, a two-way street: if you sign up for the job there’ll be no signing on for the dole. You have to stick with it.”
Clegg also told the BBC this morning that the programme would not be paid for by one single tax or spending measure, but confirmed the government was considering a “number of savings” likely to be announced by chancellor George Osborne in his autumn statement on Tuesday.
On the same day, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility is expected to downgrade its forecast that public-sector job cuts will be outweighed by a significant expansion in the private sector.
People Management – December 2011