THE “super-tax” on bankers’ bonuses will help put nearly 6,000 jobless young people across the region into work or training, Gordon Brown said yesterday.

The Prime Minister unveiled a Young Person’s Guarantee to provide a job, training, a place on a community task force or an internship to every 18 to 24-year-old out of work for six months.

The move halves the period before young people are guaranteed special help – from 12 months – and follows mounting concern that the recession is creating a “lost generation”.

Nearly 100,000 young people have been jobless for six months, of which 5,825 are in the North-East and North Yorkshire, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The blackspots include County Durham (760), Middlesbrough (690), Redcar and Cleveland (580), Stockton (535) and Sunderland (535).

Speaking in Downing Street, Mr Brown pointed to revenue from the 50 per cent tax on City bonuses above £25,000, as he explained why the Government was able to step up its help. But he also stressed that it was a tough package, because unemployed young people who refuse to take up job or training place will have their benefits slashed.

He said: “From today, there need be no young person left on unemployment benefit for the long term – 100,000 young people are guaranteed a new offer of a job, work placement or training. I'm urging every unemployed young person to take up this unique opportunity to prove themselves and to improve themselves. The measures are, in part, financed by the revenue from the bank bonus tax.”

Earlier, the Prime Minister invited major employers to Downing Street to mark the start of the scheme, which he has dubbed the Backing Young Britain campaign.

According to the Government, the move – which targets last summer’s school leavers and graduates who have been unable to find work – will create up to 470,000 opportunities over the next 15 months.

It says 104,000 jobs have already been promised, ranging from housing officers to football coaches. Yesterday, care organisations were offered £1,000 to take on a young person, under a £75m scheme.

Mr Brown also sharpened the divide between Labour and the Tories by warning that David Cameron would “put the recovery at huge risk” by cutting spending immediately.

Earlier, the Conservative leader accused the Government of putting “naked political calculation” ahead of Britain’s economic interest, by failing to promise immediate public spending cuts.

Dubbing the crash the Great Recession, he said: “Labour’s debt crisis is now the biggest threat to our recovery, so we will only get this recovery right if we start right now on a proper debt reduction plan.”