To push ds into claiming

[Lacky301]

Ds has just finished uni and never worked through me and ex dp give him £450 a month between us plus I've always bought him the odd thing and gave a bit extra here and there.
Me and his dad are seperated and his dads just received notification that he will now be charged full council tax as ds has finished uni I'm under strain financially. I've told ds he needs to claim universal credit until he finds a job but he keeps saying I want my results first. Am I wrong in pushing him to claim to take some pressure off me and dp. Fwiw he would get around £370 per month as living at home.

When you say just finished uni - literally just in the last few days/weeks?
The students at my university had their very last day of exams today.

He has previously worked in retail and hospitality before uni but the work was quite intense at uni so we let him concentrate on his studies.

24th of May he finished

Most students will apply for a job - bar work, office work to tide them over, and whilst doing these jobs then look to apply for jobs in their chosen field.

I don’t really get it. You said he’s never worked but now he’s had various jobs, you said he lives at home but now say he lives away from him in student accommodation for 3 more months?

What do you mean you let him? He’s an adult, it was in him not you, lots of students want to work to gain work experience for the food of their careers and also to earn their own money. He could have worked during the holidays if he didn’t want to during the uni terms.

I bet if he went for a walk around the uni town with a very basic copy of his CV he could have a job by this time tomorrow!

Yet has never had even a part time job and thinks it's ok, as a fit and able 21/22 year old to claim benefits rather than get a summer job?!

(And yes, hospitality jobs can be start same day in many cases, especially at this time of year)

Has he never even had a Saturday/part time job? What is he doing with all his free time?!

And yes, as parents it is your job to encourage him to be a decent member of society. Never having committed a crime is a pretty low bar, it's a given for most people!

My 18 year old niece is just finishing her first year at university and has already sorted a summer job - with a company she might well apply to for a permanent job during her final year.

Her course is at a Russell Group university, is quite intensive and she is also a student athlete, training several times a week.

OP, your son has led you quite a merry dance. Time to get him to act like an adult and get a job.

Problem is when you claim UC they don't care what degree you have, they'll make him take any job because their sole aim is to get him into work.

Making him claim could be the wake up call he needs tbh because I think he'll find his job coach isn't as sympathetic as his parents.

Also, if he does move back home at the end of August, yes he should claim universal credit if he hasn’t managed to get a job. It’s what it is there for, to pay for his transport and clothing to attend job interviews, to pay towards the broadband he will use to search for jobs, as a contribution to household costs.

He hasnt worked through uni but did before starting. By let him I meant we supported him financially

And does he live at home as you said or not?

Is the bar really so low it’s literally under the ground!?

I know that's what I meant but people have started benefit bashing and critisizing

ds has just finished 2nd year at uni a couple of weeks ago and is now off until mid September. What did he do with himself when off for so long in the summers?

He applied for jobs but they all wanted somebody that was going to hang around and not shoot back off to uni

@Lacky301 that's absolutely not true. I work for Tesco and regularly transfer my students from my store to one near their university then they transfer back home in the holidays. Lots of the big supermarkets offer this.

Why did he tell them he was leaving, especially hospitality, they are all zero contract anyway? Get the job and just hand notice in later.

My parents went on at me to get a minimum wage job to tide me over. It was hard, the people were all low earners and the whole thing humbled me making me realise just how hard people work. I’d been the typical slightly spoilt teenager before then!

Ignoring the ethics for a second, he's unlikely to qualify. Although his course may have finished, any student finance support that he has will have calculated to cover at least until the end of term, if not till August, depending on the terms. While he's entitled to student finance (even if he's received all the payments due) he won't qualify for unemployment benefits

It's really lazy to accuse people of "Benefit Bashing" when it's suggested that a person might be lazy/ workshy /entitled when they are perfectly able to work but would rather not.🙄

So he either moves back home and gets a job there or doesn’t tell them he is planning on leaving.

most jobs like that in uni towns know there will be a lot of movement, and come September there will be a whole new batch ready to work through their studies

When I got my post-grad qualification I was on benefits for around 3 months while looking to get my foot in the door of my chosen profession. I’ve been in full time employment for decades since then so I don’t feel remotely bad about it.

He shouldn’t be relying on his parents when benefits are available but some of these posts (OP has utterly failed a parent, blah blah blah) are a tad deranged.

Why hasn't he been working through uni?! Christ when I was at school we all got Saturday jobs in the last year (aged 15/16) then all worked in the local supermarket whilst doing a levels then all had bar jobs at uni!!

Universal credit is not for the work shy, it's to support those that actually need it!

The absolute entitlement!!