Across the 9 days leading up to polling day Dorset Eye will publish the answers to the questions set by local people for some of the local candidates standing in the 2015 General Election. Some candidates have yet to reply and should we receive their responses then they will be included in later interviews.
How are you going to help and support those young people who reach 19 and have no established career choice yet are ending up on zero hour contracts and have to sign on?
Peter Barton: Green Party West Dorset
As stated in my response to a previous question, the Green Party will reverse the trend whereby 45% of apprenticeships are taken by the over-25s and establish the duty of government to provide an apprenticeship to all young people aged 16-25 and increase funding for apprenticeships by 30%.
Simon Bowkett: Labour Party Dorset South
Recently I visited a job club in Westham, Weymouth. There I met a young guy, we’ll call him Jordan, seeking work. Jordan is 20, and is not unemployed – at least, not in the government’s definition. Since he left school at 16, Jordan has had a job at a major retailer in town. However, all he has been guaranteed since starting there 4 years’ ago is just 8 hours’ work a week. He is not entitled to any additional benefits because he still lives at home, so Jordan is getting deeper into debt each month with no prospect of his hours increasing. Yet for the Tories, Jordan is counted as part of their “jobs miracle” – a young person they claim is “in work”.
Labour has a better plan for people like Jordan.
We will scrap exploitative zero-hours contracts. Anyone working regularly for 12 weeks or more will be given a regular contract.
We will increase the National Minimum Wage to more than £8 an hour by October 2019 and introduce Make Work Pay contracts to provide tax rebates to firms
We will guarantee an apprenticeship for every school leaver who attains the grades and require any firm that gets a large government contract to offer apprenticeships; and offer work-based technical degrees as a progression route from apprenticeships
We will reduce tuition fees to £6,000 a year.
Simon Hoare: Conservative Party North Dorset
Apprenticeships and a sound economy.
Oliver Letwin: The Conservative Party West Dorset
The point of our long term economic plan is to enable people at every stage of their lives to have security — and that means, above all, generating the well paid and secure jobs that young people need and want. It also means offering apprenticeships to enable young people to equip themselves for those jobs.
Rachel Rogers, Labour Party West Dorset
We would ban the exploitative zero-hours contracts which make it difficult to budget and impossible to save or build for a home or a family and which prevent people from speaking out about unfairness or mistreatment at work for fear of not being given sufficient work to enable them to live.
Jane Burnet: Green Party Dorset South
We would ban zero hours contracts and are calling for a living wage of £10/ hour for adults by 2020. This will save the government £30bn in tax credits and will be paid for by changing employers NI contributions and capital tax allowances. Small companies will pay less corporation tax and large companies more. A minimum wage that needs topping up by the tax payer makes no sense.
Ros Kayes: Liberal Democrats West Dorset
Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary, has led the drive to deliver more than 2.2 million apprenticeships in government, twice as many as were delivered under the last Labour government. This vast expanse was in apprenticeships which are, in general, longer (at least one year) and more advanced (level 3 and above).
The Liberal Democrats want to see:
- New national colleges through the vision in Vince Cable’s Green Paper for a new generation of colleges filling the gap left by the abolition of polytechnics .
- A concentration on higher apprenticeships – level four, foundation degree and above – building on the Coalition’s work.
- An emphasis on apprenticeships in key areas of skill shortages: digital, construction and engineering.
- Developing the emphasis on employer ownership with more apprenticeships to small and medium sized enterprises which currently have poorer take up.
- A commitment to help employers by exempting them from national insurance when taking on apprentices and by providing hundreds of thousands of apprenticeship grants for small businesses throughout the next parliament.
Finally, the price of student loans repayment is currently £30 per month only after you earn £21,000. Under the previous government loan repayment started at £18,000. A UCAS report in February 2015 showed that more disadvantaged people than ever before were going to university . 10.6 % of students on England and Wales compared to 6.4% in Scotland which does not have university fees. This is because extra funding for students from disadvantaged backgrounds has been provided to cover their costs. We support a full review of the student finance. Personally I would support at least a £3000 cut in fees plus extra support for maintenance because many students are struggling to meet living costs whilst at Uni.
Vikki Slade: Liberal Democrats Mid Dorset and North Poole
I want to see a rolling programme of training opportunities for young people and I support the right for those on zero hours contracts but with regular hours to request a formal contract from their employer.
Thank you to all those who responded and to all those who set the questions.
