Ed Miliband would scrap Jobseeker's Allowance for 18-21 year olds

Ed Miliband says 18-21 year olds would have to train or lose benefits if Labour gained power in 2015.

Miliband would scrap Jobseekers' Allowance for the age-group and introduce a "youth allowance" which is means-tested on whether they train in key skills.

Labour seem to be joining the Tories in scapegoating the young, on top of striking another blow to the value of the welfare state

It is a good concept in theory but it would only work if there are employers that are willing to take young people on and give them the skills.

That's a very inaccurate representation of what they are doing.

They are replacing young peoples JSA with youth allowance which is worth exactly the same amount. It is means tested on your parents income and dependant on you acheivinng a levels of an equivalent level 3 qualification.

Still a stupid policy, if they bring it in Im pretty sure it would be illegal unless they brought in similar stipulations for pensioners (How about they have to have a level 3 qualification to withdraw their pension!?) but its not like anyone in that age bracket votes anyway so they may as well pander to the ignorant pensioners and right wing press to gain more votes.

The really stupid thing on Ed Miliband's part is that the kind of people who like those kind of anti-poor policies vote Tory anyway. The best thing to do to get votes is to be an alternative to the other party not a weaker, less charismatic mirror image .

Read the full ****ing story.

They loose it only if they leave school with less than 5 GCSE's.

And if they are doing that......christ.

That just simply isn't true. Many people who support these policies are labour voters who would never voote conservative because of Margaret Thatcher, and have stopped voting or now vote for UKIP. Spend any time around Barnsley, Rochdale, Sheffield, any ex industry towns and you hear daily mail opinions coming from traditional working class labour voters. They have been told time and time again by the press that immigrants and people on benefits are the reasons they aren't better off, and they believe it. To think otherwise is very niave.

You just have to look at public opinion on benefits to realise the majority of the population support these sorts of measures, and of course the older generations hold more sway as they vote in higher numbers. Until people aged 18-25 get off their arse and actually vote there will be disproportionate numbers of policies that effect them negatively,

That's a good point that I didn't really consider. I'm a Southerner myself in a mainly Lib Dem (though since 2010 we've had a Tory MP) constituency. I've never been to Barnsley, Rochdale etc - here if you don't like benefits and immigration, you vote Tory.

My boyfriends from Barnsley, his Dad is really right wing but votes labour :\

Labour unfortunately will have to be seen to be doing something about benefits because people misguidedly believe they were solely responsible for the deficit (basically the right wing media have successes to the point where they have swung politics as a whole to the right because no one truly left will get in, Labour are terrified of swinging left because of what happened last time - thatcher then major. Last time they swung left they made themselves unelectable). This policy will win them more votes than it loses and if they get in it probably won't even be implemented.

Personally I don't see why they don't go the whole hog and have Chuka Umunna as Labour leader but there we go.

Although you're right that swinging left is a bad idea, I'm not so sure swinging to the right will work that well, especially not as well as it did for Blair. Blair had charisma, stuck to his principles and never pretended to be a lefty. I remember Miliband being asked whether he was going to bring back Socialism and replying yes but at the same time he's standing by a lot of what the Tories are doing (any disputes are more tribal than ideological) and putting forward right wing policies. I, personally, think this kind of weakness and reluctance to stick to anything will cost more votes than it gains (you've got to remember a lot of people vote more on qualities than on policies). It's difficult to say though, you might be right.

I dunno the answer, but blaming those at the bottom of the pyramid and completely ignore the institutions that cause the global recessions and continue to blindly socialize the risk for them anyway doesn't seem like the best course of action. Meanwhile lets blame school leavers for everything. ****ing youth of today.

read the full ****ing story.

they loose it only if they leave school with less than 5 gcse's.

and if they are doing that......christ.

If they actually bothered to vote then this wouldn't happen. Kind of brought it on themselves by making thhemselfves an easy target.

Ye, lets all vote for the labour party, oh... wait.