(07-17-2025, 04:06 PM)gortex Wrote: Universal Credit is the fancy name the Conservative government gave to unemployment benefits when they changed the system a decade or so ago , thankfully contrary to what the name suggests our benefit system is not available to everyone in the Universe just everybody on this planet who wants to come and claim it.
So "immigrants" can apply for it, too? That seems crazy to me. Over here, you have to have a work history before you can claim to be "out of work" and claim unemployment benefits, usually a work history of at least 6 strait months prior to being out of work. No one can just walk into the country and claim they've been working here for the previous 6 months.
Benefits are also limited to a 6 month draw here. If you've not found work in that 6 months, then you're out of luck and out of benefits. At that point, you are no longer counted as "unemployed" - only those actively collecting unemployment benefits are counted as "unemployed" here, which is a boon for politicians who wreck economies, since it artificially lowers the figures for unemployment. They can claim that they have "lowered the unemployment rate" as people drop off the rolls, even though they've not actually started working again in a wrecked economy.
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“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage among his books. For to you kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned with the flick of a finger.”
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake