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

[jisak]

My youngest has turned 3 so I am now looking for work. It's my first meeting tomorrow to check im doing my commitments.

I can only work 10 hours per week. I've applied for 15 jobs so far

How many should I be applying for?

It is hard to find many 10 hour jobs in my local area and within school hours. I can also only travel 20 mins agreed with my work coach

I'm so scared I get sanctioned

No wonder camhs waiting lists are so long. Not all nurseries are good.

I think a lot of posters project and cope because they actually resent putting their young babies in nursery for long hours. You see a similar level of vitriol towards Sahms where the father is the bread winner and they don't need any benefits so all this about "a waste of my tax money" is actually a thinly veiled cope.

I say this but I'm actually a working mother myself although I don't sit around seething about Sahms because I am genuinely happy with my own life.

Which is why I said I thought 10 hours max was a good idea. So parent is at home most of the time, but child has a chance to interact with others for a bit.

Yes sorry I wasn’t disagreeing with you I probably should have made that clearer

Honestly, you really think the blame for increased CAMHS lists should be placed at the door of working parents? I would imagine Covid, a decline in living standards, the COL crisis, better recognition of ND may have contributed. But you are right - not all nurseries are as good as they should be. We should all be campaigning for better nurseries, more recognition of early years practitioners and adequate funding for childcare.

But don’t pretend working parents don’t care about their children. Some of the comments have been infuriating and quite ill informed. ‘Pearl clutchers”, “pious”, “palming kids off with strangers”. Many parents return to work because they don’t want to live on benefits and instead want to financially support their children.

I completely agree with your posts @WhiteLily1, it would require a fundamental societal and economical shift in attitude towards the vital role of motherhood and childhood development, but would benefit both mothers and young children hugely.

Yes 😩 The role of being a mum is given a lower status than ever now. Literally someone up thread called it skiiving off. In reality it’s the most one of the most jobs there is- you cannot under state the importance of structure, stability and presence of a parent or primary carer in a child 0-5 years. Just sad and depressing that so many women don’t really have a choice.

No - quite clearly I stated that ‘not all nurseries are good’ and that is where I would place blame as those very early years are so important that if a child is in a setting below the expected standard it will have repercussions. No blame on working parents at all.