The prospects for young people have not been improved by the Summer Budget. Let me count the ways of failure.
The prospects for young people have not been improved by the Summer Budget. Let me count the ways of failure.
If you are a third child, there will be no financial help for your parents through tax credits or Universal Credit. If you are between 16 and 24 years of age, unable to live at home due to family breakdown or abuse or if you have been made redundant, there will be no housing benefit for you. If you aspire to higher education, you will begin your working life burdened with yet more debt as the Chancellor converts maintenance grants, worth up to £3,387 a year for the poorest students, into repayable loans.
Combined with tuition fees of £9000 a year, this presents immense difficulties for young people in finding somewhere affordable to live as they begin their working lives. And of course, the Educational Maintenance Allowance of £30 a week which made it possible for many 16-19 year olds from poorer families to continue in further education, was scrapped by the Coalition in 2010.
However, George Osborne announced today that an extra £50 million was to be found to expand the number of military cadet units in state schools. This is to be funded by the MoD, who doubtless see it as a recruiting opportunity.
The infantry have historically drawn their recruits from the poorly educated young males. A Commons Select Committee report in 2013 found that 39 per cent of army recruits had a reading age of 11 and that a similar proportion only understand maths at the level of a final year primary pupil. The likelihood of drawing in adolescents who do not see themselves as having much in the way of prospects will have been increased by today’s budget.
Veterans for Peace, an educational organisation of former military personnel who campaign to increase public awareness of the costs of war, says: “The army look to the youngest recruits (from age 16) to fill the most dangerous jobs in the armed forces because these jobs tend to be under-recruited. The Ministry of Defence says that enlisting from such a young age allows the army to make up for recruitment shortfalls, ‘particularly for the infantry’”.
Around £45 million has been spent by the Department for Education in funding the ‘military ethos’ for schools over the last three years and the Ministry of Defence already puts £180 million into running the Combined Cadet Force in schools. Promoting this programme, the former Education Secretary Michael Gove said: “Every child can benefit from a military ethos. Self-discipline and teamwork are at the heart of what makes our armed forces the best in the world – and are exactly what all young people need to succeed. ”
These are indeed admirable qualities which most parents would wish for their children. But to suggest that they cannot be modelled and taught without the concept of training for armed conflict is disturbing.
As the MoD is to fund the expansion of cadet units, the £50 million will presumably be considered as forming part of that percentage of GDP which the Chancellor today confirmed would be spent annually on defence in order to meet Nato targets. He also announced that military spending would rise by 0.5 per cent above inflation for each year of this parliament. £50 million is admittedly a very small part of the two per cent of GDP concerned, but state schools – which are community schools for all children – are not the place for funding defence spending.
This is a budget which will increase and perpetuate inequality. (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/21871) The next generation has been sorely let down by a Chancellor who could have used that £50 million with far greater integrity.
* Full 2015 budget coverage and commentary from Ekklesia at: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/budget2015
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© Jill Segger is an Associate Director of Ekklesia with particular involvement in editorial issues. She is a freelance writer who contributes to the Church Times, Catholic Herald, Tribune, Reform and The Friend, among other publications. Jill is an active Quaker. See: http://www.journalistdirectory.com/journalist/TQig/Jill-Segger You can follow Jill on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/quakerpen