Infozone: the briefing – 09/04/10
OPTIMISTIC TEENAGERS LOOK FORWARD TO HIGH EARNINGS
Teenagers think they will earn more than £50,000 a year by the time they reach 35, and will be able to afford a house by their mid-20s, a survey of 10,000 young people has revealed.
The research, carried out by NatWest, also found that teenagers thought they would run up just £10,000 of student debt by the time they graduate. The average expected salary by age 35 was £51,000. The most optimistic teenagers were in London. On average they thought they would be earning £63,227 a year by the time they were 35. This is more than double the average salary of people in their thirties, which is £28,933.
TOP UK BUSINESSES BACK TORY PLANS TO DITCH NI INCREASE
Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's and Diageo are among the top UK companies that have backed Conservative plans to reverse the Government's planned national insurance rise for low earners.
In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, 23 of the country's businesses, which together employ 500,000 people, have endorsed shadow chancellor George Osborne's pledge to prevent the 1% hike from 2011 for those earning under £45,400 a year.
The bosses of the firms said the 1% increase planned from April next year was a tax on jobs and would endanger economic recovery.
TRAINING LAW COMES INTO EFFECT
Workers now have the right to ask their employer to pay for any external training under the new time off for training legislation. The Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act, which became law on 6 April, provides employees with a statutory right to request time off for training. The legislation, which initially covers organisations with more than 250 staff, provides a "statutory right to make a request in relation to study or training".
