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

In the 70s my dad went to uni for free, got a grant and signed on in the holidays - what a time to be alive!
Boomers 😂

Interesting thread, normally when someone is posting about benefits everyone says ‘claim what you’re entitled to’!

I don’t blame 18 year olds for claiming, it’s expensive looking for a job - how are they supposed to get to an interview with no money? Buy an outfit for an interview? Pay for a mobile? Get the extra support that comes from being on benefits?

Why do posters just assume it’s parents responsibility to pay for their child’s food, house them, clothes them? Many of these parents are being screwed over by this gov on tax. What’s the difference between an 18 year old and a 22 year old out of uni? Should anyone living at home not be able to claim?

My DC have over the threshold in savings anyway however despite us being able to afford it I would be getting them to sign on. There is a benefit culture in this country that is going ti bring it down, a few 18 year olds claiming what they need to find a job is not the problem.

So are we saying that all 18yo, regardless of living at home, can claim JSA? Because I didn’t know that. I’m a high earner, can more than support my child, but if she’s entitled to claim - why shouldn’t she? Or
have I misunderstood?

The job market for young people is DIRE. My DD is 17 and fully qualified in Hairdressing Level 2, NVQ L3 in nails, she’s a qualified lash tech, brow tech and qualified in hair extension. Can she get a job in a salon? No. Can she get an apprenticeship even though she’s already qualified in most aspects? No. Has she been on over 140 unpaid hours in “trials”? Yes. Does she have a job? No. And is it hammering her mental health? Yes! It makes her wonder whether all her hours at college during the day, and all her paid for tuition on a night is actually worth anything at all.

Perhaps the governments of the day need to start investing in young people!

Because £10 cash a day won't get you a bus ticket that takes you very far on public transport - this way, teenagers can travel as far as they need to go for work, training or college

Interesting thread, normally when someone is posting about benefits everyone says ‘claim what you’re entitled to’

Its because its about young people and there is a weird narrative in some parts of society that the young don’t deserve anything 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was alive in the 80s and they would have very much been judged by those around me. Df was made redundant in the 1980s so was on benefits briefly - 4 months. He hated signing on and how people looked at him.

They take 16 year olds. But only in batches at certain time of the year. Our local one is not hiring atm. We live in a village close to a medium sized town - there really aren’t p/t jobs for all teenagers.

And people signed on when I was young, it’s not new.

Yes but tbf it also gives them NI contributions if they claim JS.

I bet not one of these 18 year olds "discouraged by not being able to find a job" would dream of applying for a job in a care home, as that would be beneath them.

@Pistachiocake I can't actually remember when my mum took me down to the job centre to sign on.
It must have been before the September. I had a Saturday job but during the summer holidays I sometimes worked extra days so I had to tell the job centre weekly how much I had earned so it was taken off my job seekers money.

@thinkofsomethingdifferent could she apply for start up grants and set up her own mobile business?

If she's entitled to claim then she can, but why would she want to if you're supporting her?

This is why children of high earners do better - they have parents financially supporting them so they can take gap years, do internships, go to university.

Children of low earners have to work or spend 35 hours a week job seeking and attending appointments for their £70.

The privilege on display on this thread is staggering! Yes some people take a while to get a job when job hunting, some people take even longer. Where I am it’s absolutely brutal. I just found a job after searching for 14 months. And thankfully we live in a country where people aren’t expected to starve to death while they job hunt (including 18 year olds) 🙄

I wonder if the sheer amount of choice and information available to kids is a big part of the problems young people are currently experiencing. MH and otherwise. When I was 18, I finished my alevels and then went to uni to study what I was good at. I honestly don’t think my thought process went beyond that. It wouldn’t have crossed my mind to look up benefits. I’m starting to think the choice and info so easily available to children now isn’t helping them.

Not the fault of young people that jobs are drying up. Claiming dole while looking for a job has always been the norm.

So the government is actually paying more to provide free transport than it is in benefits?
But that's ok...🤷

It is a very different landscape right now for jobs for young people though - very, very difficult and there are just masses of people going for the same job, so I wouldn’t begrudge any young person living at home to go on UC and, as others have said, it really alleviates the financial burden on their parents.

With astronomical rents (and absolutely no chance of buying currently) many young adults are going to be living at home for a very long time, in the South East anyway.

It doesn’t matter if they are entitled to it.

Just because you are entitled to something, doesn’t mean you need to take it. It doesn’t mean it is good for you either.

There is no chance I would ever allow my 18 year old child to do this. I don’t even want them to think that taking money from the state is an option, in the same way I had no idea benefits were an option.

I would be surprised if there wasn't a correlation between claiming benefits early in life and being on benefits later on.

It is wrong to do this to a child.

Don’t most women with those qualifications go self-employed? She could go mobile and build up a client base - that’s what all the hair/nails/brows people I know did. Then a salon takes you because they can also draw in your steady client base. Or they rent a chair from a salon.

You didn’t give that option or uc didn’t?

Why would you assume they would be doing one?

Most in England do A levels or equivalent and finish at 18. Then go to uni or work.

Aren’t Highers completed by age 17?

I bet not one of these 18 year olds "discouraged by not being able to find a job" would dream of applying for a job in a care home, as that would be beneath them.

And yet it’s completely acceptable for older people to do what they can to avoid having to pay for their care as they want their dc to inherit resulting in the people who care for them remaining on a shit wage.

Not convinced 'most' are able to fully support their adult offspring in this day and age.

And in times when there aren't enough jobs to go round, I'm not at all surprised some 18 y/os aren't able to find work.