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

[LemonBounce]

I have to say if you are thinking applying for UC/JSA will give her self worth it's the absolute opposite of the experiences I've had/heard of.
I'd also caution against pushing her into a low paid job. From those I know a lot got trapped in low paid jobs because they had no choice but to earn money quickly. Those who had parents who could support them to continue applying got better jobs. Far from the gap closing it has widened with those who could get into better jobs benefitting from promotions and higher salaries. Those forced into lower jobs are either still there or years behind.

Continue to support your daughter if you possibly can. She's not workshy. In the years to come it will be the best decision you ever made.

There will be less competition for jobs over the next few months as a lot of grads will have got jobs.

[MimiSunshine]

She needs to get herself on LinkedIn and start networking as a freelance copywriter. The work is there and she can earn a good amount of money doing it.

tell her to have a look for Helen Pritchards (she may now be Helen Tudor) LinkedIn challenge if she has no idea how to get started on LinkedIn

[BloodAndFire]

I also have a 2:1 in a humanities subject from a RG university.

Yep, there must be hundreds of thousands of people who could say this. I thought it was funny the pp listing it as if it's an unusual or especially desirable qualification. Nothing wrong with it but it's hardly going to make you stand out in the graduate job market.

Part of the problem is that universities are money-making enterprises who want to churn out as many graduates as possible, with the highest possible grades, and a lot of degrees aren't much use at all in the working world.

Even when I was still a PhD student teaching and marking undergraduate work (yes, humanities at a RG university) back in the day, it was really difficult to give anything below a 2.1 for anything but outstandingly shit or blatantly plagiarised submissions (and even then you'd have the student and their parents demanding that you raise the grade/drop the plagiarism case/etc.)

Personally I think the whole higher ed sector needs an overhaul but that's a different story... (and not going to happen because it brings in so much overseas dosh).

[ricepuddin]

@MimiSunshine

She needs to get herself on LinkedIn and start networking as a freelance copywriter. The work is there and she can earn a good amount of money doing it.

tell her to have a look for Helen Pritchards (she may now be Helen Tudor) LinkedIn challenge if she has no idea how to get started on LinkedIn

Yes I second this, there is an amazing array of resources (podcasts, challenges, etc) for freelance copywriters etc

[snowsilver]

The OP says she lives rurally so it's not so easy to walk into work.
This is exactly what we did with DS. He came home from uni and had the summer off. Then he looked for a local job. Got a job in Tesco after 2 months of trying, while he applied for graduate roles. It took him 6 months to get a graduate role(this was 2020 when many companies stopped grad schemes due to lockdown).
Never considered him claiming benefits but he could have done.

[CatJumperTwat]

Publishing is very hard to break into and she needs to be within commuting distance of London to get her foot in the door. Unfortunately there are plenty of people who will do publishing internships and reader positions for free, so there's little appetite to pay for entry roles.

However, I just took on a grad for a copywriting role (not in publishing). I snapped her up right away.

[Puffin87]

Why is she only applying to niche sectors?

There are also plenty of fully remote positions being advertised, so location shouldn't be an issue.

I graduated with an arts degree after the last recession. I went into a different sector as a result (banking) and it worked out really well for me.

She needs to widen the net or at least accept a non-ideal job for now.

[Kennykenkencat]

Because before the internet you had to get the Financial Times or what other and apply by writing a covering letter, by hand and enclosing your cv which you had copy’s made by going into a copy shop for them to do. It showed you were modern and up to date🤣🤣🤣


You had to give your address as where would the company write to, to offer you an interview or tell you they were better candidates

Times have definitely changed

[Christmascracker0]

Get her signed up with a temp agency. My one week temp work after uni turned into a year and gave me solid work experience for when I got my graduate job.

At the very least least she will have something to do and will be earning money!

[Puffin87]

@LemonBounce

I have to say if you are thinking applying for UC/JSA will give her self worth it's the absolute opposite of the experiences I've had/heard of.
I'd also caution against pushing her into a low paid job. From those I know a lot got trapped in low paid jobs because they had no choice but to earn money quickly. Those who had parents who could support them to continue applying got better jobs. Far from the gap closing it has widened with those who could get into better jobs benefitting from promotions and higher salaries. Those forced into lower jobs are either still there or years behind.

Continue to support your daughter if you possibly can. She's not workshy. In the years to come it will be the best decision you ever made.

There will be less competition for jobs over the next few months as a lot of grads will have got jobs.

I disagree with this. I did a minimum wage job for a few months after graduating and it gave me experience to help me progress elsewhere.

[Blankscreen]

I'm a bit surprised that you would even consider her claiming universal credit.

She just needs to get a job of some description (pub/supermarket) to tide her over.

There is no reason for her to claim when she can work even if she is 'entitled' to.

[Wiluli]

How about she behaves like an adult a suou suggest and gets a job locally while she applies to other jobs ? The state doesn’t expect you to support her , it expects her to put on her big girl pants and know we can’t always get the jobs we want

[Aprilx]

@drivinmecrazy

Orangegato that's my point, what if she didn't have us.
Obviously even entry level jobs she's looking at mean she'll be staying to pay back her student loan hopefully quite soon.
I'm so pleased I'm past all this. It's really hitting home what a torrid time that younger generations are having to endure.
Naively never really given it much more than lip service previously

I don’t really understand what part of her situation you are finding torrid or particular to this generation. I graduated in 1992, major recession that year and it was really hard to find a graduate job.

As has been said many times, the normal thing to do was to find any work in the meantime. I would have done anything because I needed money, I remember I was entitled to £27 a week benefits, so a bit less in real terms than your daughter will get in UC. But I wanted to get some money in, I applied for all kinds, two I remember in particular were interviewing for work on a butchers market stall and as a knitting machine operator. I didn’t get either job because unlike today, unemployment was pretty high back then. I eventually got work in a call centre and I finally got my graduate job a few months after that.

[OriginalUsername2]

@AIBUYESYES

We are fortunate we can accommodate her but it's a hefty weight for us to carry with the cost of living etc.

You are saying that it's hard to feed one more adult living at home?
And surely her laundry can go into the wash with yours.

Our electric alone goes up £15 a week when our uni student is home.

[Gastonia]

I think it's always been this way re London and publishing. When I graduated 40 years ago, my parents lived in a very rural area with no jobs. I moved to London and rented a very cheap bed in a 6-bed room in a really grotty hostel, and worked hard in a shop, for a few months before I got a better paid job.

[pattihews]

Jobs in publishing and copy-writing are like gold-dust and she would very likely be required to do at least one and possibly more unpaid internships before she got a job offer. Publishing, at the bottom, is poorly paid: it's the kind of work you were expected to do for the love of it in my day (14 poorly paid years in book and magazine publishing, a decade in advertising). You have to be there in the city, making contacts and being seen.

DD can be getting experience and building up a portfolio/ profile by doing this kind of work:
www.freelancer.co.uk/jobs/proofreading

In the meantime she needs to find cafe or retail work or whatever is available locally and support herself. She might also want to rethink her choice of career.

[cestlavielife]

She can claim UC unless she has 16k savings
She will have to speak to a work coach from time to time and show she applying for jobs which should not be hard to do

[PinkFrogss]

She could probably earn a decent amount doing some language tutoring, which would leave her more time to work on applications.

I think unfortunately, as others have said, she’s unlikely to get her dream job in London if she’s not already in London. If she did get a job there she might struggle to afford the living costs. I think you should have a proper tough love chat with her and help her make some alternative career plans

[thing47]

@drivinmecrazy could you be a bit more specific about what your DD wants to get into, 'publishing' is a broad church.

Apologies if this has already been answered but does she want to write? Or edit? Or copy-edit? Or work on translations (given her Spanish)? Does she want to be in book publishing or magazines, or newspapers or online?

A couple of suggestions for relevant skills – learn how to use In-Design on an Apple Mac; learn how to research and edit photos (there are a number of packages but you can never go wrong with PhotoShop); make sure she can set up Excel spreadsheets; make sure she understands SEO best practice. Lots of major companies outsource aspects like their internal and external newsletters, staff comms, annual reports, website content etc to content agencies and the more of these skills she has, the more attractive a prospect she will be. Plus of course it shows commitment if she's willing to spend money on improving her skillset. [These ideas courtesy of DH who has worked in publishing for a number of years.]

[DrMarciaFieldstone]

@Puffin87

I disagree with this. I did a minimum wage job for a few months after graduating and it gave me experience to help me progress elsewhere.

I also disagree. I hire graduates and it’s infinitely better to be in any kind of employment rather than being unemployed and claiming you’re concentrating on the job search.

It doesn’t matter what kind of work; it shows willing, resilience, work ethic, and that you can juggle different priorities.

[cestlavielife]

If you have a Plan 2 student loan
You’ll only repay when your income is over £524 a week, £2,274 a month or £27,295 a year (before tax and other deductions).

[thedancingbear]

@DrMarciaFieldstone

I also disagree. I hire graduates and it’s infinitely better to be in any kind of employment rather than being unemployed and claiming you’re concentrating on the job search.

It doesn’t matter what kind of work; it shows willing, resilience, work ethic, and that you can juggle different priorities.

Yep. I recruit graduates, and we love seeing people with non-graduate/holiday jobs on their CV. (i) it shows work ethic (ii) those roles more transferrable skills than you would imagine and (iii) it's great when strong candidates raise those experiences at interview to demonstrate their strengths.

People we recruit who have literally never had a job before often turn out to be total donkeys.

[cestlavielife]

@drivinmecrazy

She is applying for hospitality work and isn't solely applying for work limited to publishing.
She has experience in hospitality so is applying locally for vacancies, she's worked since she was 15 years old in hospitality!
We effectively gave her a two month grace period (November/December) before she started applying for local work.

She coukd look for a live in position in london and be in situ to seek out the jobs she really wants