Jobs for students

Press, 20 December 1986, Page 20

Jobs for students

Sir, —In reply to V. Upton and J. Shiel (December 17), my original letter did not “point the finger at any one group as being less worthy of a job than another group.” I realise that students have a particularly tough row to hoe. However, most students, unlike unemployed people, have access to bank overdrafts whether or not they can guarantee later employment. The vast majority of students do not have families to support. Neither are students obliged to report monthly (or fortnightly in outly-? ing areas) to the Labour Department during the time they receive the emergency unemployment benefit. So, in effect, they could, if they so desired, spend the summer receiving the benefit while travelling the country, using travel concessions which unemployed people have no access to. Another point is the fact that students have a choice as to whether or not they are students. Unemployed people do not choose to be unemployed. I stand by my original compromise of organisations employing a mixture of students and unemployed people during the summmer. — Yours, etc., S. E. MCDOUGALL. December 17, 1986.