Young people are not fair game, Mr Osborne

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/12/young-people-are-not-fair-game-mr-osborne

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Jonathan Freedland’s superb analysis of George Osborne’s clever but quite inhumane calculation of the likely limits of a voting majority’s empathy (There are limits to our empathy. Osborne knows it, 11 July) nonetheless might underestimate the extent of the anger and opposition of pensioners, like myself, who know how lucky they are to have more than an actual living income. We have not forgotten the lessons of Cathy Come Home nor joined the ranks of those who wish to define and discriminate in favour of a “deserving” poor. We can see how, in particular, the budget savagely affects the under-25s, as Freedland describes.

Perhaps the time has come when we who enjoyed free education through university, full employment and accessible housing, followed by generous pensions, unearned house values, free bus passes, etc, must now ask Osborne to recalibrate his callous calculations. I would ask him to find a way of redistributing some of the varied enriched resources of comfortable pensioners, like myself, before he is forced to reopen a workhouse system. Otherwise, perhaps Age UK could open a Help the Young fund.Robert BaileyMacclesfield, Cheshire

Now it seems that the younger generation is fair game when it comes to imposition of debts and unfairness

• I’m aged over 65. If I organise myself properly next year, I can collect £11,000 of pension income, earn £1,000 interest from my cash savings, £5,000 in dividends from my equity portfolio, and generate about £11,300 of capital gains – £28,300 in all, without paying a penny of income tax, national insurance contributions, or capital gains tax. My marginal tax rate will be 7.5% on my extra equity income. I’ll also have a bus pass that lets me travel free all round England, and I’ll be sent a winter fuel allowance just before Christmas, as I nip off to the Canary Islands for some sun.

A 25-year-old graduate who gets the same £28,300 from employment will pay £3,460 in IT, £2,400 in NIC, and £657 in student loan repayments, £6,517 in all, over 23% of income, and will have a marginal tax rate of 41%.John HaighBrighton, East Sussex

• Does my memory fail me or do I not recall that one of the reasons George Osborne used to justify the imposition of austerity measures in the coalition’s budgets was that it was unfair to saddle the younger generation with the load of hefty debt repayments? Strange how soon this has been forgotten. Now it seems that the younger generation is fair game when it comes to imposition of debts and unfairness. I am a pensioner, a supposed beneficiary of Tory generosity. I’d happily forgo such generosity if it meant that I could read about Tory budget decisions without feeling utterly sick and despondent. I know that there are others of my generation who share my views. Who will speak up for us?Mary GladmanSwindon

• One of the areas of provision which wasn’t mentioned in your review of the effects of the cuts on services for young people (theguardian.com, 10 July) was the local authority youth service and the informal educational opportunities these have provided. Yet last year a Unison survey of 168 local councils across the UK revealed that between 2012 and 2014 funding for these services was cut back by at least £60m, resulting in the loss of more than 2,000 youth worker jobs and 41,000 youth service places, the closure of around 350 youth centres and a reduction of 35,000 hours of outreach work.

Those of our staff who are under 25 work just as hard and have just as much to contribute as those over 25

Findings from surveys over a number of years, including one in 2013, suggest that as a result as many as 800,000 young people – many of them with limited or no contact with other supportive agencies outside school – could well have been affected.Bernard DaviesLeamington Spa

• We are appalled that the government thinks it is now fine to pay under-25s less than other employees. Those of our staff who are under 25 work just as hard and have just as much to contribute as those over 25. They pay the same prices, rent and utility bills as anyone else and there is no reason at all to pay them less. That is simply age discrimination and could lead to young workers being let go by unscrupulous firms when they reach 25. We want no part of it.Ross BradshawFive Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham

• Excluding the under-25s from the “national living wage” is in fact a clever political move. Before long, the government will be trumpeting a substantial decrease in youth unemployment as employers jettison older workers in favour of substantially cheaper younger applicants. Furthermore, any negative financial impact of the measure on employers will thus be minimised. An even more scary future for those over-25s with family responsibilities already struggling in a low-wage, zero hours, reduced-tax-credit economy, of course – but I don’t imagine that will keep anyone on the front bench awake at night.Barry RamshawBristol