SHOULD 16 & 17 YEAR OLDS GET A £100 VOUCHER?

It's a question that may not be of much significance to a majority of the population, but it is the question that many young people are wanting answers to.

With all adults in Northern Ireland receiving a £100 voucher through the Spend Local scheme introduced by the Economy minister Gordon Lyons, Northern Ireland’s young people have been asking why they have been excluded from the scheme.

Sinn Fein MLA for Foyle, Padraig Delargy, raised the issue in the assembly chamber yesterday (Tuesday 16 November). In the proposal Delargy explained his views on the issue.

“The premise of the scheme is that it benefits retail. There is no difference between an 18-year-old and an 80-year-old spending £100 to support our local businesses, so I do not see any reason why 16- and 17-year-olds should not have access to the voucher as well.”

The MLA for Foyle also gave the figures behind the addition of 16 and 17 year olds to the scheme, “£21 million was set aside in case there was a shortfall and other groups needed to be added to the scheme. It would cost only £4·5 million to extend the voucher scheme to 16- and 17-year-olds. I believe that that would be money well spent.”

So why has the Department for the Economy not accepted this proposal? One of the key reasons for the exclusion of under 18s from the scheme is the issue around verification.

At this time in Northern Ireland there is no database that exists to confirm the identification of 16 and 17 year olds like there is with adults. The department also explained that this increased difficulty in verifying this cohort would have caused delays to the scheme which would impact the overall impact of the scheme itself.

Despite this many view this as a needless exclusion of young people in our society with many seeing a working 16 or 17 year old as an equally important taxpayer as a 75 year old for example.

The counter-argument to that would also be that not all under 18s pay tax or work in full time employment therefore they aren’t contributing to the same extent as the rest.

It is an issue that will no doubt rubble on over the coming days and weeks as the period to use the vouchers expires on 14 December.