UP TO £35m will be spent on finding work or training for the long-term jobless across the region to ensure they are not “written off”, Gordon Brown pledged yesterday.

Companies will be offered a “golden hello” worth up to £2,500 for every person they recruit who has been claiming jobseekers’ allowance (JSA) for more than six months, as part of a £500m emergency package.

The move – unveiled at a “jobs summit” in London – could throw a lifeline to more than 14,000 people across Merseyside, North Cheshire and West Lancashire who have been job-hunting for six months or more.

Ministers also released figures revealing there are more than 16,000 advertised vacancies locally to bolster their claim that, even in recession, work is available.

In some areas, vacancies easily outnumber the long-term jobless, including in Sefton (2,056 versus 1,795), St Helens (1,341/1,070), Warrington (2,097/785) and – most starkly – Chester (1,322/230).

But the Tories immediately accused the Prime Minister of stealing the idea of government subsidies for employers, having unveiled a similar scheme of their own in November.

Meanwhile, Tory leader David Cameron launched a new poster campaign to highlight how future generations will pay the price for Britain’s soaring debt levels.

Claiming every child will be born with £17,000 of debt hanging over them, the posters feature a photograph of a baby and the slogan: “Dad's nose, mum's eyes, Gordon Brown's debt.”

Under the two-year jobs initiative, to start in April, Jobcentre Plus staff will be given the power to reward firms who offer work or training to those jobless for six months.

There are fears that unemployment will hit 3m by the end of the year as the recession bites, with job losses announced recently by blue-chip companies including Nissan, Marks and Spencer and Barclays.

But, speaking after meeting company executives, welfare providers and unions, Mr Brown said 200,000 people were getting new jobs every month – and that 500,000 vacancies were available.

He said: “We know that any action we take has costs. But the biggest cost of all would be the cost of doing nothing. Failure to act now would mean a deeper and longer recession. It would mean temporary rises in unemployment made permanent, with whole communities written off as we saw in the past.

“That would mean lasting damage to our economy and a bigger bill to pay in the future. This will not happen on my watch.”

The initiative comes hard-on-the-heels of measures to increase apprenticeships by 35,000 and a system of internships to ensure students unable to find employment still find training.

But Lib-Dem work and pension spokesman Steve Webb said: “Someone who needs and wants to retrain should not be told to come back in six months’ time. They need help immediately.”