Do all 18 years old go on UC if they cannot find a job

[Crystalovertherainbow]

Do the family needs to show their income or the new adult is considered their own financial unit now , even if they live with the parents and their UC is given them

@SirChenjins I googled....
you don't do HNDs at "college" in England and Wales - because it's for 16-18 year olds (or 19 if you need the extra year).
They are a Higher Education qualification (aka university).

Ohhhhhhhhhh- if only I had known an ‘18 year old can get a job’!!
Why didn’t I tell my daughter that??!!
Where do they ‘Wash pots’? In the closed down pubs?
Mow lawns? You will need PLI for that, plus transport, plus, potentially equipment. Leaflets printing.
Babysit? Would you leave your kids with an unknown 18 year old??

I have no idea where you live but my **AuADHD daughter 18 is chronically depressed after applying for 175+ jobs ( she stopped counting) in the last year and hearing back from ONE. Just ONE (Wetherspoons if anyone cares) who said ‘thanks for the application, please re apply when you have some experience’.

Why would employers take on 18 year olds and pay them £10.50 when they hve no experience (many of them still struggle with social interaction after lockdowns) when they can pay £12.21 and get someone with experience.
In some cases hundreds of people are applying for these jobs you seem to think are there.
We don’t all live in London you know.

l look foreward to you contacting me to tell me how you are going to find my daughter a job - ‘let’s face it” it should be a fucking doddle for you.

**Oh and obvs she doesn’t say on her cv that she is disabled as we know it puts potential employers off. Massively .

Same here.

Sadly.... not true. There are some places with very high levels of unemployment 🙁

You can do adult education at FE colleges too, quite often HR and management diplomas are level 5.

Tax payers can't afford to support the ever increasing benefits bill. They've only themselves to blame if Reform get in. A bit of common sense from Labour could have prevented the rise of Reform. But no.

No, I’d say it is the exception rather than the rule, mine didn’t nor did any of their friends,

Me too. People saying that parents might not be able to support their kids when out of school, I am surprised that these 18 year olds would not already be in part time work whilst studying.

Being on benefits at 18 is a good experience?

Do you know what a better experience is? Not being on benefits at 18.

Many people having no understanding of how the benefits system works isn’t a bad thing! Ideally, it would be better if even more people had no understanding of how the benefits system works.

Not for free though.

Completely agree.

18 year olds living at home and claiming benefits is one of the most depressing things I’ve ever read.

Free bus travel helps young people who have no family support. It encourages them into further education and to seek employment. Many are from disadvantaged backgrounds and need all the help they can get. For someone on a low income public transport costs would be a significant expense. I'd rather my taxes were subsidising this rather than benefits.

Not in England, education is only free up to level 3 and 19 years.

To those who would expect their 18yo to go on benefits if they don’t have a job, did you at the same age?

Jeeze, what a start to adult life. There’s no way in hell I’d let my kids do that.

Try McDonalds, they take on 17 year olds.

I wouldn't have thought you could get it until at least September, as surely someone would technically be at school or college until August, and they might well be starting uni in October? Maybe you could in the nineties, but I don't think you can now?
I also don't understand why any 18 year old could get UC regardless of her parent's income, when if she goes to uni, she will get less government help if her parents have a certain wealth?

Feel so lucky to have a job at present while youth unemployment hovers around 1,000,000. It is easy to judge until you have been in that situation. I remember firing CVs into a black hole during the Cameron austerity years. Coming out of university I was considered both inexperienced and overqualfiied, and a flight risk when applying for retail work.

No I went to university. Unfortunately my 17 yo DD doesn’t know what she wants to study.

A lot of people on this thread seem to think that an 18 year old can claim UC, then sit back, relax and rake the money in. Claiming UC will give them the experience to know that those people are thoroughly incorrect. If they’re searching for a job, why not claim UC while searching? They’re entitled to it, and it’s approx only £10 a day. Money they need to get to interviews, for interview clothes, just to live on!

I think free transport is a good idea.
Unfortunately large areas of the country don't actually have any/decent public transport so it's pretty pointless in some places.
However.... if they do live in an area with public transport what really is the difference between the government funding free travel or the government funding essentially £10 a day which can be used to buy a bus ticket?
It's still government funding 🤷

I had a paper round at 14, doesn’t exist now. Worked in a salon at 15 a few hours a week, the last post I saw advertised wanted 25 hours which is quite a commitment & I’m not sure 15 yr olds can work that?
I then had a retail job at 17 again weekends & holidays around school & worked through uni. It’s much harder now as they want you to work overnight shifts in supermarkets, be able to drive and deliver or just commit for a lot more hours. I wouldn’t have a problem with my dc claiming whilst searching for work.

Centuries ago, when I turned 18 and couldn’t get a job due to the recession I applied for benefits. I was told I couldn’t claim as my bf was expected to support me and his earning (tuppence and a ha’penny that just covered the rent and council tax) were too high for us to be eligible. We were also 21. They told me if I moved back home I’d get help as parents are not required to support after 18.

so to answer your question
do they? No idea.
can they? Yes.

Yes exactly.
You can't do a "level 5" qualification at college without having to pay for it (in England).

You’d have been stunned by what went on in the 80s - almost everyone I was friends with had a full-time ‘cash in hand’ waitressing and/or bar job in their early 20s, while also claiming benefits!

I worked for my father so didn’t, but nobody judged them.