Graduate DD not qualifying for job seekers. The buck stops with us

[drivinmecrazy]

DD1 graduated this summer and moved home to us in October.
Since then she's been applying for entry level jobs in publishing and copywriting in London.
We live in a rural town with limited employment opportunities, for which we feel really guilty for, but that's another story.
We agreed to give her until the new year to focus fully on finding the ideal position before we expected her to apply for local jobs which would tide her over.
Since then she's applied for job seekers allowance. Found out today she does not qualify because doesn't have enough NI contributions.
She's certainly not work shy, she supported herself largely through uni and spent time from graduation until she me of September working full time at her uni job so was paying NI and tax.
Now she's home it falls to us to support her. She has dwindling savings so has enough for her socialising and we obviously don't charge her for board and lodgings.
But at 22yo surely she should be treated by the state as independent.
What if we didn't have the means to support her at home?
TBH I was hoping she'd qualify for the £200 odd per month for job seekers so she might be able to contribute £20 a week to the household, which would obviously not come close to what she is 'costing' us , but might give her some self worth.
We are fortunate we can accommodate her but it's a hefty weight for us to carry with the cost of living etc.

We have never claimed anything as a family but surely as an independent 22yo woman she should have some autonomy.

I realise probably shouldn't have put this in aibu cos I know I am, but where do our parental responsibilities stop?

She has obviously started applying for local jobs in what she has experience of and her cv is fortunately full of work experience so shouldn't take long.

But I guess my real AIBU is what would happen if we could not or would not cover her living costs

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Sounds to me like she’s just twittering around with an art portfolio and writing - that can be done in the evening and any old job during the day. She has it too easy if she has money to socialise- she should not be dependent on you! For the record, I have a 21 yr old finishing this year. He’s worked every holidays at our local co-op and also one near uni when he’s there. He’s going to work for them full time whilst looking for his ‘dream’ job in musical theatre. Her expectations need to be managed. My son wanted to live in London whilst looking but realised it’s unrealistic and so is going to be here, paying rent, because I have to. I can’t afford to subsidise him, which he’s totally on board with and he’ll try and get a local theatre job, any job, just to get a foot in the door.

Am I missing something? Can't she just get a job in a supermarket or bar or cafe or warehouse or something while she looks for jobs in her skill area? UC and JSA are for people who can't get a job. She sounds lazy. Sorry, but she ought to be working IMO

I agree with Soon2be60

I graduated decades ago

I did various temping jobs during the daytime & a part time job in the evening
Then a full time job
Then I completed a course while working
Then joined a graduate entry job
I didn't have a car, but I could drive
I didn't live with my parents

Nobody is going to just give your DD her dream job, she needs to get out there & sell her qualities against all the other working population that are job hunting

Goodluck

People complain about the state of the nhs and why it is unfunded. Local agency and bound to get something straight away. We can’t keeping funding people who have opted not to work for a period.

I work in banking, no-one has a media studies degree, except possibly the young ladies on the reception desk.

@Flexigurl do you mind my asking what you mean by copywriting jobs being contracted out overseas? I'm from overseas (english speaking ex british colony) and have had little luck with finding international remote freelance copywriting jobs. Most seem to prefer anglo applicants (US, UK, NZ, Aus, S Africa at a push). I can't quite see the benefit to them in terms of currency/cost savings... Or do they just want a slightly wider applicant pool (4-5 countries and not just 1)? Or... am I looking in the wrong places?

I'm going to add that employers prefer to employ someone who has been working, versus someone who has not been working

Or working & volunteering

This has been discussed many times on MN

The graduate is an adult, clearly not busy with work - why should mummy do it for her?

With a degree in English literature she could apply for entry level content design jobs in the civil service or do a TEFL and teach English. I know TEFL costs a fair bit but if she took a local retail she could save for it.

She needs to apply for UC. If she is a22 year old graduate with no dependents, she needs to take available work whilst she waits for her dream job to materialise.

It’s one of these jobs that isn’t handled in house much these days. Light copy editing yes, but a full time copy editor? Certainly all of ours are handled by either freelance from a service or overseas partner. Same with typesetting, cataloging, pagination. For example we use Editage, it’s like fiver but a lot more quality control. If you want to freelance often academic authors for research papers will pay for tone of voice, but the amount of work involved is very rarely adequately recompensed. As an actual career? Personally I’d avoid it, ok for pocket money unless you’ve already got a large client base and a lot of spare time. Some key starter roles in publishing that would be achievable with some online courses would be things like marketing, ux design, customer service and ops, sales support / execs.

Or online tutoring in either English or Spanish or coaching GCSE students.

This is massively inaccurate. There are plenty of starter positions in publishing, some even struggle to recruit as good candidates are hard to find. You certainly don’t need a masters in it, and internships are paid but these are normally arranged through your university. If you’re talking about getting a job as an editorial assistant etc, those aren’t starter roles, you could get a marketing, or product or exec role right out of university and I know that would be decent wages and well above the minimum wage. you just need to know where to look for them. They are most likely on linked in or through the 3 or 4 specialised recruiters. Certainly not the big job sites.

Good suggestion but just to point out, you just need any old degree (not necessarily Eng lit) to teach TEFL, so in a sense she may be overqualified. The industry is poorly regulated and used to be even more so.

There also isn't much or any career progression unless she's interested in working within education in international schools for example. Long term I'm not sure if it's a good idea unless she loves teaching.

As a stopgap measure though it's a good idea - her Eng lit degree and bilingual Spanish skills might make her more attractive to employers or students. Self taught TEFL courses can also be completed online in like a week.

Happened to me after uni, didn't qualify for UC even though I worked part time through both my uni courses. I also lived with my bf and he earned 'too' much and apparantly could support us both (we basically scraped by) so she may fall into the same category if your incomes are accounted into her eligibility.

And yet my rubbish 2:1 from a mediocre university got me a job in publishing, and I work with several very good colleagues with no degree at all. Publishing has actually never been easier than now to get into as with a bit of effort and online courses you can get skills that they desperately need. I think one of the issues is that when people have these ideas on what they want, they get given advice from the 90s and it doesn’t work, they end up wasting their lives away on work that’s not giving them any usable or buildable experience. The daughter has a joint degree with Spanish, and languages are in demand. I’ve just gone on one publish recruitment website and there were at least 20 entry level positions. Even one or two proof reading ones which I was very surprised at, although from the job description they are very small organisations. If all a job seeker is doing is looking on indeed and handing out cvs to pubs that’s exactly the type of work they will get

Does she have savings in her name @drivinmecrazy? If she does that will affect her ability to claim UC.

Second this. Friend is in the industry. Took her many unpaid internship to get a permanent role. It is a very competitive industry that pays poorly. Her parents live in London. She is still living at home.
OP's daughter needs a plan B. The dream job might not come. There are many other jobs paying better than publishing.

@drivinmecrazy
If she didn’t have the hostel of mum and dad she’d have to work in retail/a call centre/ the local pub til she got her dream London job

i appreciate that’s likely horrifying for you, but wanted to reassure you that there is a middle ground between a London media lifestyle and abject destitution.

in fact millions of us manage it

Could she look at online tutoring / language lessons?

Language assistant in a school? It won't pay much and might actually be voluntary but it would get something on her CV.

I’ve not read all comments so sorry if repeating what other people have said.

Your daughter is in such an exciting position right now. A graduate looking for work in 2023 when the UK has the biggest skills shortage since 1974 means there are some amazing opportunities out there and maybe she needs some career advice to open up the job market for her.

Sounds like the career she wants to go for is currently a no go BUT what other things would she consider. Do a job search for maybe 3 other roles that she hasn’t considered and start firing her CV off to them.

Start getting for interviews to boost her confidence, potentially amazing offers and opportunities.

Recruitment agencies can give good advice on where to start but please tell her not to give up hope just maybe change where she’s aiming because there will be companies who would snap her up in a heartbeat!

Your parents income doesn't count for UC.

You've told her she didn't need to bother getting a job yet and you're moaning she has no income.
She shouldn't need to claim benefits.