How many jobs per week am I expected to apply for on universal credit

I'm confused about this. Are you saying that if you don't earn a certain amount, or work enough hours a week, you're not entitled to any universal credit?

My daughter has to apply for a minimum of 3 a week. Think it's a minimum of 18 hours to get UC- it changed last year

But you would quite happily pay more for a nursery then for the mother to look after a child

But it’s about more than that. Staying at home, or limiting your job search to 10 hours work is limiting your future earning potential. I would encourage people in this situation to either take advantage of the opportunities to train/re skill or get back into a job (any job to be frank).
Being in work has many positive benefits and will open new doors. We can’t keep thinking working is optional.
If you look at the recent research by many pressure groups funding childcare has a net positive impact when you take into account income tax revenues, spending, pensions etc. It has also been shown to raise families out of poverty.

There is a lot of jealousy on here.

Maybe she wants to give her child a better chance of developing into a healthy person. If you want to outsource parenting, don't have children.

In my mind it is. Society (and how it’s set up) should allow mums to be with their babies and toddlers for the vast majority of the week.
Awful that it’s currently not.

her tiny child is 3! why is the OPs child special whilst loads of other (much smaller) DC attend childcare??

OP wouldn't be working 24/7 all week. there is still plenty of time to spend time even with working parents.

Yes I think at least part time. Going back to work full time when the baby is 9 months to me is just incredibly sad and wrong and against nature. I know I’m in the minority and plenty of women will step up and say how ‘boring motherhood was and how they nearly lost their minds’ Yes I know many people ‘can’t afford it’ and that’s what I find sad and wrong also.

Because her tiny child needs to be with at least one of his/her parents sometimes?

It’s not for other people (taxpayers) to fund that!

Well, OP cannot afford to stay at home without being funded by all this mum's who are, going off your post, 'shunting' their DC off in the name of paying tax and funding the work shy like OP.

nobody is saying mums cannot be with their DC but if they haven't got the money, they will just need to work.

it's also very offensive to state that working parents are 'shunting their DC off to every Tom, Dick and Harry' . What a cuntish post.

The pearl clutchers are out in force today. "Won't somebody think of the poor tax payers"😱
Who do you think pays for the "free" nursery hours?
30 free hours costs roughly 170 a week to the government a single parent claiming uc will get 315 a month for one child

So how about you turn your ire on those awful working scroungers snatching up all those poor little tax £££s in order to pay someone else to look after their child /s

That’s find but why should taxpayers pay for someone to stay at home?
Fyi - professional childcare isn’t every Tom, Dick or Harry

But this is a choice that you make if you have the financial means to make it? Not a choice you make and expect tax payers to fund it.
How many of us working parents would have like to have stayed at home when our children were small but accepted we couldn’t because we could afford to?
Its exactly this attitude that leaves me 🤦‍♀️

She has applied for 15 in what sounds like a couple of weeks. That's a lot considering how few jobs in her category are likely to be out there, and how long the search and applications take.

Maybe people should stop tearing her down for her efforts and her having some anxiety about what is expected and fear of being sanctioned.

Wow this thread really shows how much MN/society has changed since I had my dc1 in the early noughties.

I wanted to work, and full time too but was heavily pressured by everyone not to.

I did work ft and paid for ft childcare but I never met another young single mum who did.

I don't know whether it was better then or not.

At least then there seemed to be a choice.

Motherhood was an alternative to paid work for poor women. It isn't now.

Hang on. Won’t op qualify for help towards childcare through universal credit? (Quite rightly).
Surely, she should at least applying for the additional nursery hours that will allow her to work and support herself?

Should every family be able to claim benefits to be able to afford for one parent to stay at home? We certainly couldn't have afforded to have a SAHP.

Perhaps they actually want to spend time with their baby and small kids, raise them themselves rather than shunting them off to every Tom dick and harry for the working week?
Jesus what’s happened to the world that mothers can’t actually be with their babies and toddlers anymore without being called a shirker.

I think lots of women reading this post would feel bewildered. To choose work hours around school runs? What a luxury. I think that some people on benefits and top-up benefits have a better quality of life in terms of time spent with the children, than career women or just normal working women. Makes you think

the child is nursery age so no school runs. It's a luxury for some of us to have a supportive partner, a full time job that pays enough to cover all reasonable outgoings and a working vehicle that gets you from a to b as quickly as possible. Not everyone is just able to just manage when children are young.

As for better quality of life, well, yeah, please try it sometime. My poor kids were first in childcare and last out for years and years whilst I worked. As young adults they appreciate it but will tell you those years when they were younger were incredibly hard, resulted in much unpleasantness from their peers ('doesn't your mum care about you? she always leaves you in afterschool club right to the end') and a huge sense of abandonment from both their parents. If I could do it again with that knowledge, I would work part time.

On JSA I was expected to show I was applying or doing courses for equivalent of full time work. In reality this meant showing them the jobs I was applying for (screen shots were OK) or telling them the courses I did.

I think finding a job that is 2 hours a day will be very very hard. Most I know doing very short hours do it over one or two days a week.

Sounds a pretty slack system. I returned to work after twelve months maternity leave and dc went to a childminder 12 hours per day.

I was responsible for my own bills, how do you pay yours? Do you live with parents?

I work for the council (in a school) and we are desperate (like majorly!) for people to fill the numerous 5/10/12/15 hour school time/term time jobs we have! There are literally loads and casual roles as well. We just can’t fill them! Usually as they applicants have been told they need to do more than those hours or lose money!! I work 13.75 hours a week and take home almost 900 a month as well… so it is possible.
OP go on your councils website, find the jobs bit and have a look. There will be loads on there. Even if it’s a casual role… these can lead to permanent positions which would then be perfect for when your little one starts school as your “feet would be under the table” as it was!!

She isn't choosing this though. This is her only option as I imagine she couldn't afford to pay for full time childcare if she has a full time job (even with government help you'd need to pay it up front).