Freeze international aid and give young people a £2,000 employment tax cut, says UKIP

Young Independence, UKIP’s youth wing, has slammed Osborne’s “Budget for growth” which ignores the plight of young people suffering a record unemployment rate.

Harry Aldridge, Chairman of Young Independence says “With a record 1 in 5 young people unemployed, the government has failed to give any support in this budget to help get young people into work. They have missed an opportunity.”

“Freezing the international aid budget for the Parliament would save £9.1bn, enough to fund a targeted £2,000 cut in employer’s national insurance for 16-24 year olds. Real help for real jobs, now, when it’s needed.*”

“This government has put unaffordable aid spending in times of austerity ahead of our own young people, the future of this country.”

A further burden will be placed on a generation of young people as the budget announced an increase in borrowing over 4 years, saddling future taxpayers with an extra £38bn national debt and £1.6bn annual interest payments**.

“Labour, and now the Conservative/Lib-Dem coalition government have mortgaged our children’s future. Public spending must be cut and the books balanced, but paying £48m a day in EU contributions and increasing international aid spending to £25m/day, shows the government has got its priorities wrong and turned its back on people”

Jake Ellett, Vice Chairman of Young Independence says “There is some good news in the budget, however. We fully support the Chancellor adopting UKIP’s long standing policy to merge Income Tax and National Insurance. Aligning national insurance with income tax will help young people with seasonal income from holiday employment and reduce the paperwork for small employers”

“We’re also delighted to see the government has listened to UKIP again and is taking steps to increase the personal allowance. We believe there should be no tax paid on minimum wage earnings and have set out plans for a bolder £11,500 allowance, but unfortunately the Chancellor has not also borrowed our tough public spending plans to pay for it!”

Notes:

*Office for National Statistics March 2011 Labour market statistics (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/lmsuk0311.pdf) show 20.6% unemployment rate for 16-24s leaving 974,000 out of work. If youth unemployment were the UK national 8.0% average, youth employment would total approximately 4.35m. £9.1bn / 4.35m = £2,091

**OBR Economic & Fiscal Outlook March 2011, P145, P148 & P152