To wonder what else can be done to break the cycle of generations living off benefits?

[Allonthesametrain]

Sounds harsh because It is. As a former teacher, then eduation social worker, now the past few years more heavily involved with school attendance.

My desire has always been to help children from unprivileged backgrounds to know their worth and achieve the best they can and this has been my career from age 23 to 57.

The number of times I've cried, torn my hair out, is immeasurable. I and colleagues have gone above and beyond to support the families, genuinely care about them, but unfortunately the outcome has been, as I've said in title, it's a continiation of the cycle of being brought up within a small community and low expectations.

So many gorgeous kids (supported throughout their young lives until they leave school) who tell you their dreams of what they want to to achieve in life, we do everything we can to enable it and some have indeed broken out of the circle but unfortunately the reality has been...

Parents who live lifestyles of no bedtime routine, tell their kids not to come back before ...pm, sleep in and don't get them out of bed ready and fed for school and as for weekends, pub and take back a new bloke

Parents who have issues themselves and project them onto DC. The kids soon realise they can stay off school for feigning illness and would actually be a comfort to Mum

The parents who just cba and say shall we just still in bed?

Of course there are so many other mitigating factors but these are the 3 main experiences we've dealt with. Unfortunately it really does come down to poor parenting and no matter what interventions we do to encourage attendance, only a minority are genuine.

So the cycle...DC think education isn't important, parents are hopeless role models and can often be aggressive to teachers, a deflection of blame.

Then oh DD gets pregnant at age 15, DS has been reprimanded by the police for scooting around in a balaclava. Then pure hostility when we try to continue to talk to them and what could be done to help.

Basically it's just such a shame, these sweet young kids who say they want to be ... become so influenced by their homelife, a need to fit in with their family and peers from the same estate, that they ignore the support we give them, don't turn up to appointments etc.

For the genuine cases, DC with SEN, the effort to try and ensure they are in best place is utmost and it's heartbreaking there aren't enough of them. Yes, we do know genuine cases and not just so many parents striving for a diagnosis because they feed DC a terrible diet and let them stay up late so are tired and irritable at school.

Expecting some backlash, whatever anyone says I can reason with.

So you didn't look up youth guarantee or age changes for pip.

Well, I’ve seen lots of parents posting ‘please help my child get a job, they’ve tried Tesco, McDonald’s, Costa…’ etc - like there’s a list of 20 chain stores which once rejected, you give up the search completely

I wasn’t talking about PIP we were talking about UC

The cuts are to lcwra which is part of UC for the under 25s

When was the last time you applied for a job?.Specifically an entry level or minimum wage job? What platforms did you use?

Ok so you didn't look up youth guarantee. First you say under 25s shouldn't get benefits i point out changes which you no nothing about or can't be bothered to Google. Someone then points out cuts to lcwra but then you say no not cuts changes because you seem to think their different i then mention changes to pip but then you say you don't mean pip then I say about the youth guarantee scheme which you've heard nothing about. If you are going to come on a forum and slag people of at least educate yourself and get your facts right. Or actually listen to what people are telling you.

All the posts saying get a job, any job, you're too picky, just start a business... I swear some people are living in a parallel universe that they think that secure employment and a living wage are easy to come by.

I applied for a cleaning job with an NHS trust after my divorce about 16 years ago and was rejected out of hand at interview because I was a retention risk. I was too old, too well spoken, over qualified etc etc. It didn't matter that I was willing to do the job, perfectly capable of it and needed it to get off JSA as it was then.

Two years ago I wound up my own business, a shop that I'd run for 7 years, in 5000 of debt because internet and a change in bus services amongst other complicated personal reasons screwed me over royally. To operate any kind of enterprise, you need capital and comprehensive PL insurance to get started, and if it requires a premises overheads are ridiculous. Long gone are the days when Richard Branson was able to start Virgin from a phone box.

Employers have the pick of candidates that AI screening selects for them.

I sometimes wonder how people would react if people did just start rocking up to companies and demanding a job, perhaps holding HR hostage until a contract was produced. Would they be applauded for their work ethic or castigated for their delusion and entitlement, plus gaining a criminal record for breach of the peace / harrassment?

"Just do this, just do that" .... magickal thinking in the extreme....

She doesn't understand what she's even talking about. She's just loud about it.

Without commas it’s quite hard to read what you write. The youth guarantee scheme doesn’t actually force them to take the job though does it? Or am I wrong?

You think everyone claiming benefits is genuine?!?

I think we’ll see a massive increase in under 25s having babies if they’re gonna cut the benefits because it will be the only way they will be able to leave home again.
Perhaps that’s the cunning plan, baldric

I didn’t ask about cuts. I was talking about eligibility. Surely you see the difference?

There will always be a minority of people who fit the stereotypes, unfortunately. Their existence doesn't make it OK to tar those who are doing their best but are temporarily in need with the same brush.

Well it takes their benefits away. Obviously it doesn't send people into their bedroom to physically drag them out

Or just tar everyone on UC with the same brush.

Funny because she's very quick at using AI to generate walls of text. Not so good at picking out what's relevant I guess.

How would that work?

Not enough council houses for this to work anymore

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/15/young-at-london-job-show-barriers-to-work-uk-youth-unemployment

And on the subject of youth unemployment specifically, this is an interesting read.

It wasn’t AI. Surely you could see that from the stated source?

So they get 18 months UC, then a guaranteed job offer that they either take or lost their benefits?

I work in probation and fully agree with you. I'm ready for out tbh. I no longer believe most people can be rehabilitated and I'm that old that I am now dealing with offenders where I have previously managed the 2 generations above. 3 generations of offenders and no intervention or support has made a bit of difference. These people have had all the available intervention thrown at them over the years. The same families are in the family(for children, non mol etc) and county (non payment of rent) courts throughout the week. It's a lifestyle for them and I do not think the chain can ever be broken for the majority of them

What is that supposed to prove?

Anyway, you never did answer my questions. Funny how people can make such bold statements but run away when it gets tricky.

Of course not. I wasn't born yesterday. But the figures for benefit fraud (which I actually have bothered to familiarise myself with - currently estimated at around 2–3% of overall benefit spending, fyi) strongly support the hypothesis that most claimants are genuine.

Besides which, benefits are far harder to obtain and to live on than some people are fond of claiming. People simply don't get the option (quite rightly) to go on UC just because they can't be arsed working and fancy sitting on their arses all day instead. It's a right-wing myth that too many seem gullible enough to fall for.

Interesting that you opted to ask a goady question rather than answer whether you yourself have any familiarity with the actual facts and figures around benefit claiming, though.

Ask them again and I’ll answer. This thread has had a lot of posts, you can’t expect me to read absolutely everything.