Friday, January 03, 2014

Who has little, let them have less

Three quarters of a million young people in Britain believe they "have nothing to live for", the Prince's Trust has warned. The findings showed that 40 per cent of young people have faced symptoms of mental illness, including self-loathing and panic attacks, as a result of being out of work. The survey also found that long-term unemployed young people across the UK are more than twice as likely as their peers to have been prescribed anti-depressants. One in three (32 per cent) long-term unemployed youngsters have contemplated suicide and one in four (24 per cent) in this group admitted to self-harming.

Martina Milburn, chief executive of the Prince’s Trust, said: “Unemployment is proven to cause devastating, long-lasting mental health problems among young people. Thousands wake up every day believing that life isn’t worth living, after struggling for years in the dole queue."

And for the older worker new figures show Britons working beyond the state pension age has increased by a third over the past few years. It found the employment rate for the age group stands at 10 percent, the highest amount since official records began in 1992. Experts blamed the rise in the number of working pensioners on rock-bottom interest rates on savings accounts, soaring energy bills, and low pension payouts.

Employment is not a zero-sum game, and while the number of over-50s in work is rising faster than the other age groups, the over-50s have not been squeezing young people out of the job market,” said Tim Pethick of Saga.

Meantime, the privileged few continue to reward themselves.

Vice-chancellors of the UK’s top universities pocketed average pay rises of £22,000 last year - while insisting their employees stuck to just a one per cent increase. 24 of the most selective higher education institutions in the country - awarded pay rises of 8.1 per cent on average to their vice-chancellors while overall benefits packages also soared by 5.2 per cent. The rises themselves were more than the annual salary of their staff.

Haydn Morris, of the Unite union - which represents science technicians, administrators and management staff in universities, said : “This smacks of rank hypocrisy - given that university staff have endured a six-year pay drought which has seen a 13 per cent cut in pay real terms since 2008...the university bosses are lining their own substantial pockets while those staff that keep Britain in the top ten world university league table struggle to make ends meet.”

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, added: “Many vice-chancellors have talked down to their staff and told them to accept a one per cent rise - representing another real terms pay cut - as it is the best they can expect, while happily pocketing big sums themselves. Few people have ever bought the lie that we are all in this together but these revelations are as insulting as they are unfair.”


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