Conservatives consider youth incentives

A Conservative policy group is recommending that disaffected youths should be handed concert tickets and other rewards in return for doing charity work.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith's social justice commission is to call for the move in its report on Tuesday, it emerged last night.

The proposed 'V-card' system would see young people earn credits in exchange for volunteering.

In a bid to encourage giving at an early age, primary school pupils could also be provided with £5 each by the taxpayer to spend on an anti-poverty charity chosen from among several giving classroom presentations.

Other recommendations designed to boost the role of the voluntary sector include compelling secondary school students to devise and take part in social projects and tax breaks for charitable giving.

Duncan Smith, who has concentrated on the problem of social breakdown since he stepped down from the Conservative leadership in 2003, believes that it is best tackled by the so-called 'third sector'.

But his report will argue that it is currently being held back by government interference and red tape

"The war on poverty will only be won by liberating the third sector from the incessant pressure to do the government's work in the government's way," it says.

"Innovative social entrepreneurs and grassroots projects need to be trusted and equipped to find new solutions to these intractable problems."