Young People Pledge

A Bankers' Bonus Tax and pension tax relief could help up to 5, 000 young Scots.

Scottish Labour will pledge today to invest £1 billion to give working class youngsters a better chance in life.

Fife's youth unemployment is the third highest in the country.

The £1 billion package includes:
 
-          A Scottish Jobs Guarantee
-          A £1,000 increase in the bursaries for Scottish students
-          A Future Fund worth £1,600 for every 18 and 19 year old in work
-          Free university tuition  

Scottish Leader Jim Murphy will say: “This is an unprecedented investment in our young people, only made possible by harnessing the wealth of the whole of the UK, including the wealthiest in the City of London.
 
“It is a guarantee of opportunity that the SNP can’t deliver because they don’t believe in redistributing from South to North.
 
“And it is a guarantee that the Tories won’t deliver because they do not believe in redistributing from rich to poor."
 
Speaking about the opportunities available to young people in Scotland, Mr Murphy will say:
 
“This generation of young people has come of age when, for the first time, most parents believe that their children will do worse than they did. 
 
“While the living standards of those retiring now are greater than previous pensioners, young people’s living standards have stagnated compared to their older siblings and parents.
 
“In years to come we may look back with regret at the last few years and question whether, in pursuing austerity in order not to saddle the next generation with debt, we have, in fact, denied them the future they were raised to expect.
 
“The economic and social costs of a generation for whom the hope of youth has been replaced with pessimism over the chances of a better future may dog us for years to come.
 
“But it is not too late to turn things around and to make the promise of a better future real.
 
“It is not too late because this generation of young people have been educated for longer and to a higher standard than any previous generation.”
 
Speaking about the Scottish Jobs Guarantee, Mr Murphy will say: “We will use a new tax on the bonuses of bankers here in the City of London and in the UK’s other financial centres.
 
“We will use that funding to guarantee a real job, at at-least Minimum Wage, and to guarantee training for every young person too.
 
“We offer the guarantee to all young people who are at risk of falling into long term unemployment.
 
“This will be a Scottish Jobs Guarantee, delivered by a distinct contract in Scotland, in partnership with employers, colleges and the Scottish Government."