27-04-2025
The whole nation suffers when young people abandon the jobs market
SIR – I agree with Matthew Lynn's assessment of the importance of ensuring that work pays (Business Comment, April 26). He points out that the benefits and the taxation systems encourage anti-work mindsets across the income scale. As a result the usual social and ethical attitudes to work are undermined to an extent which the country inevitably struggles to afford.
While the pandemic has made it worse, the problem of what to do about those not in education, employment or training (NEETs) has been a concern for decades. Local and national governments have struggled to analyse, understand and address the causes and effects. Meanwhile, the wellbeing of young people and that of our national economy decline in tandem.
Geoff Holmes
Hexham, Northumberland
SIR – The report (April 25) that young people will not work for less than £40,000 is deeply worrying. This inactivity in itself will lead to ill health in mid-life. Anyone who can physically work should not be paid benefits to lounge at home.
Barbara Marshall
Helmdon, Northamptonshire
SIR – Matthew Lynn seems to be on the side of 16- to 24-year-olds who are reluctant to leave their homes – or even beds – for less than £40,000.
After what a colleague once called 'the most expensive education that money can buy' and three years at a blue-chip university, I found myself depressed, also in my bed most of the day and funding a serious alcohol habit. A kindly clerk at Hanwell Department of Health and Social Security suggested I might be interested in a job involving cooking, cleaning and emptying the occasional commode for the housebound elderly.
I wasn't, but ended up doing it for more than two years before moving into a 40-year career in community mental health, an area which desperately needs bright, creative young staff. The prospects and pay may be poor, but the rewards are immense.
Jeremy Walker
London WC1
SIR – I take issue with Stuart Harrington (Letters, April 26) on today's youth. This is a generation who were banned from school and forced to wear masks when they did go, in erroneous measures to protect them from a disease that mostly affected the elderly. They now cannot find worthwhile employment and, even when they do, are deprived of the camaraderie and help offered by team work, instead working from home at least some of the time.
They have little chance of owning a home, or even renting one. They have been terrified into believing that the world is burning up. They can see baby boomers enjoying a standard of life they can only dream of.
Let's all be a little kinder and show some understanding.
