To push ds into claiming

Does your son live with his dad? If not and your ex lives alone he will be entitled to 25% off council tax

@Lacky301 Wow, I've tried to read most of the responses here and can see so many very lucky people responding.

Lucky because they haven't needed to claim benefits in the past. Those who have unexpectedly become disabled know how quickly that can change.

Anyway, your son finished uni last week and he gets his results in less than a fortnight. I don't see 2-3 week break from working so hard to get that final work in as excessive.

However, he is an adult and shouldn't be relying on his parents funding him any more. He has to become responsible for himself.

A few years back I qualified in social welfare law and so will give you my opinion on the benefits situation.

Several people have said he should claim Jobseekers Allowance, which is a great idea, however, you can now only claim Jobseekers Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance if you have enough National Insurance credits. Someone who hasn't worked pretty much full time in the last few years will not be eligible for these.

Means tested Jobseekers Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Housing Benefit, Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit no longer accept new claims as they've all been replaced by Universal Credit.

If your son gets a poorly paid job now (pays less than £566 a month) he should be able to get that income topped up by Universal Credit. So personally I would be telling him I will no longer be giving him any money and he needs to find his own. You will help him apply for jobs/UC so he can get some money but you won't be handing him any from your in pocket any more.

As he is a fit and healthy young man there will be a list of claimant commitments he has to stick to so he will be able to get his UC. This will include spending a massive amount of time looking for work, applying for jobs, improving his CV etc. If he doesn't do it they'll sanction him and he won't get paid.

UC is not a walk in the park, even those with long term health conditions and disabilities are being pushed to do some work through that scheme. The system is very strict and degrading, most people in it want out ASAP. But wages are so low in so many jobs a lot of people are stuck with it.

My niece's mother had 3 zero hours jobs and because she got very few hours one month they had her into the jobcentre to push her into getting more work. Problem was she had lots of hours by then and was struggling to find a slot she could fit the jobcentre appointment into so she could go and explain her work situation and stop them reducing what little money she was getting from them.

Please try to remember 40% of people on UC are in work, the majority of the rest are long-term sick or disabled. Every one of us here would claim what benefits we are entitled to if we had no other way of paying our bills etc.

Please don't ever make anyone feel bad about needing the support provided by our government.

His CV will take 4 minutes as there is nothing to put on it.

Name
Address
Phone

He's got nothing else to show for his 24 years on the planet aside from one time he got paid to get pissed and listen to music at a festival

It’s all changed and he’ll spend his life at interviews he has no interest in doing the jobs.
Much better to just go and get a job he enjoys.

It's not really about timescales though, but the overall attitude that's shining through

All of these details about applications, CVs, etc, will have been fully explained by the Uni staff, and so far it appears he's done practically nothing

As he has accommodation until August, he doesn't actually live with his dad at the moment so there's no reason for his dad to lose the single person discount until he moves back in August.

Assuming he can't/won't live with you - it's ok for him to just have one home when he moves back rather than moving between your house and his dad's and if you already have two adults in the house it makes sense for him to live with you assuming there's space in your house for him to avoid the Council Tax issue. (Not suggesting lying about where he's living.)

If he's going to claim Universal Credit, the advice I've seen is it's best to claim between 1-18 of the month to avoid problems with two monthly salaries falling into one assessment period. It's worth doing some reading before claiming.

The university careers service should be able to help with job hunting.

A holiday / break after finishing uni isn't a bad plan before plunging into job hunting (not necessarily months worth, but a couple of weeks off)

Sounds like he’s having a jolly up in his uni town. He should be working, especially in a field like physio not working would not look good on his CV even if it’s a volunteer role with a sports team. The skills he’s learnt will get rusty not being used. Also that type of role practising is so important to your development.

The more I read this the more I'm wondering if he realistically knows he's failed his degree and that's why he's being so wishy washy about coming home.

Which adds to the thinking that if he's going to need to redo his final year, or even just one module...WHY THE HELL ISN'T HE GETTING A TEMP JOB TO START FUNDING ANOTHER TERM AT UNI?!

@Lacky301 You could do with telling him that his £450 will be stopping as of 1st July. If you wait until he gets a job before you stop his money then you could be paying it for a L O N G time!

If he's not working he needs to claim, to keep his national insurance contributions up to date

Time off in addition to the 22 weeks off he had every year for the past 3 years at Uni you mean?

@Lacky301 all I'm reading here is that he doesn't see the point in getting a job until he gets the job he wants or plans to stay in. That's not how it works. He needs a job, any job right now because he is currently an adult who is unable to support himself

As long as he actually looking for a job I don't see the issue claiming. UC will force him to look for jobs anyway.

No it won't. Five weeks or immediately if he takes an advance once everything is verified.

Even if he's struggling with his MH, getting a job in something like hospitality will most probably help his MH rather than ruin it - some of my best working memories are from working in a pub in the summer between my UG and PG degrees!

Having done physiotherapy as a degree, he could probably advertise services for things like sports massage etc for a competitive hourly rate - even a few hours a week would be money in his pocket whilst giving him work experience and something to talk about to prospective employers.

But honestly, I do find it worrisome that he has so little work experience in this job market and doesn't seem to have any motivation to pick up any paid work in this interim period. My work experiences as a student were the reason why I got a graduate placement after my PG, and my CV would most probably have been auto-rejected if I'd had none at all.

It appears he hasn’t even TRIED to get a job though? He’s likely not going to walk into his dream job straight out of uni, he needs any job while he sorts out his long term career plan. Either you bank roll him if he doesn’t want to work right now or he gets atleast a part time job. Pushing him on to benefits isn’t the answer.

Plenty of sessional physio jobs about if he wants p/t work to enjoy the summer. Casual work shouldn't stop hom from applying for permanent positions as it'll take a while to secure one.

https://www.kickitout.org/job/academy-physiotherapist-part-time-0

Students on physio courses are told how and when to start applying and it's during their final year. Obviously, job offers they get are contingent on passing their course - as are most/all graduate job offers.

He can have time out if his PARENTS pay for it. If they don't it is not acceptable to expect other hard working people to fund his break. The reality of being an adult is you need to work. The reality of work is you don't get heaps of holidays.

As for not taking a job in his uni town because he might have to quit in August - why is that an issue? People quit jobs for many reasons. He equally may remain in that town and continue working.

As someone noted, he's after a three month summer holiday with no commitments. He's happy for you to fund that. You'd prefer taxpayers to do so.

Please tell me he has at least applied for the applicable graduate routes for his chosen career(s)? Applications for starting this autumn will have opened last autumn, and honestly it’s unlikely that there are any places left now. If he doesn’t apply till after results, he will have to apply for positions starting next autumn, and will be up against a cohort of more recent graduates as well as people looking for a sideways move. Depending on his field, he may be able to get an internship, which would help him to then get a job, but these days most are unpaid, so he would need to live at home and be supported by you and his dad. Sounds like you would be willing to offer that support though, and he could then do paid work at the weekends.

If he applies for.universal credit, he'll have to be actively looking for work. They'll ask for proof of job applications. If he doesn't apply for 2 jobs per week, they'll end it. Agency work is plentiful and easy to get.

I worked in hospitality as a student and while I looked for a job after. I claimed fuck all in benefits. That was before minimum wage was a thing.

I fully support the need for a benefit system. I would pay more tax to increase things like carers allowance, but I 100% begrudge paying a single penny to anyone in this situation.

He needs money? Get a job!

This doesn't really add up.
He did physiotherapy and hasn't worked all through uni but he wants to spend time working on his cv?? What is there to work on, it's going to be pretty empty!
He doesn't use his student council tax discount where he's actually living but your ex claims it even though your son isn't actually living there?
He wants to stay in his uni accommodation until August but doesn't know whether to apply for jobs there or at home? Well if he's applying for work in his uni town he just needs to find a zero hours contract for now.
Do you mean if he hasn't passed the course then he's going to stay and retake his final year?
If he's been working really hard for 3 years but might fail then the harsh reality is he's not capable of it. And if that's the case, he's going to need a lot of support to cope with that. But how did it get this far? Has he not had any warning of this from his tutors? Or has he actually not been working really hard at all, he's just been enjoying himself?

@AmpleFatball

I had little work experience - a few part-time, seasonal jobs but that was it.

But exactly - you did have this. In the 3 or 4 years OP's DS has been at university he has had none of this. No seasonal jobs.

Do you think I should be kicking myself for not spending a little more of my youth working in a bar of whatever?

Of course not. Firstly, you did have some experience. Secondly, you'd a clear post-university plan, unlike (again OP's DS, who currently has not)

I didn't, by the way, speak about casual work as being important for one's career. You've misread.

I simply said that you can fund yourself through casual work while planning your long-term career, in response to OP saying her DS couldn't work as he needed time to plan his future.

If he's been studying Physiotherapy, has he at least had a work placement during his course?

Because he has finished and could be working within a week if he actually wanted to.