[In 1981, the Tories' Employment Secretary announced in…]

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In 1981, the Tories' Employment Secretary announced in BRANGE CENTR JOHN HARRIS Parliament that supplementary benefit to unemployed young people under 18 would stop as soon as the government could offer them all places in the Youth Opportun(Times Educational Supplement, July 3 1981).

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Trade unionists lobby an Area Manpower Board meeting in Birmingham against benefit cuts for YTS refusers Join the ORGANISER Farty ORGANISER tumt Scargill gets it right Inside ¡ties Programme or a similar scheme.

YTS is still officially "voluntary". The TUC only agreed to back the scheme in the first place on condition that there would be no compulsion involved.

Under pressure from the TUC and others, the Government dropped its original plan to make the scheme compulsory.

In reality, however, the scheme has been made effectively compulsory for most 16 and 17 year olds who cannot find a "real" job.

For a start, the scheme has been designated "approved training", which means that YTS places are treated as normal jobs by the DHSS. As a result, a youth who turns down a YTS place, or who leaves a scheme early, stands to have his or her benefit cut by 40% - taking it to below £10 a week.

Youth who have left schemes because of inadequate training, and others who have turned down places because they were already studying at further education colleges under the 21-hour rule (which allows a student to claim benefit so long as his or her studies take up less than 21 hours a week) have already been penalised in this way.

And all the signs are that this backdoor compulsion is being tightened up. Careers officers have been instructed to send reports on "refusers" to the DHSS.

At the same time, 21-hour students are now being called in by the careers service and "offered" YTS places. Again, if they refuse, the careers service has been instructed to pass their names on to the DHSS.

But NALGO members in the careers service are resisting these developments: in London, Sheffield and Birmingham NALGO members have voted not to report on "refusers"

This issue is going to become increasingly important. The government's recent White Paper "Training for Jobs" (!) makes it clear that they plan to step up compulsion still further.

Class Fighter has already initiated a series of lobbies against compulsion around the country. This campaign must be continued, and links with NALGO members in the careers service and CPSA members in DHSS must be established if the government's plans are to be thwarted.

Meanwhile, pressure must be put on the TUC to really fight for its own formal policy of opposition to compulsion, and to withdraw from the MSC if compulsion continues.

THE Birmingham policy commits careers officers to:

A) Refuse to complete any documentation or reveal by any other means information in respect of young people refusing to take part in the YTS which may be used by the Department of Employment to withhold or reduce the state benefits those SCHEMES ARE SO GOOD-WHY NO TO COMPULSION ON SUPPORT ON