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Should Uni students be allowed to claim benefits?

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Should Uni students be entitled to social security benefits?

Hi
Should university students be allowed to claim benefits to help with living expenses and accommodation?
Maintenance grants and loans are quite poor.

I think they should be allowed to claim income support and housing benefit, to pay for books, food and their accommodation. In the summer holidays they should be allowed to claim Jobseeker's Allowance as they were back in the 1970s. My teacher said he used to sign on in the summer and that kept him going until they stopped it
:frown:

The money could come from the rich and bankers paying more taxes also a mansion tax could help.
We are wanting better our lives and society should do more to help us achieve our goals, to become: doctors, engineers, teachers, politicians sociologists architects etc. Students are the nations future.
No. Maintenance loans are for your cost of living and have recently been increased.

If you're a full-time student on your summer hols you aren't searching for permanent work and therefore shouldn't be eligible for JSA. If you decide to work then odds are you won't be paying any tax and will keep all you earn.

"The money could come from bankers and the rich" - High earners in the UK already pay more tax than the millions of low earners do. Why should you be they be taxed even higher just because you think you're being disadvantaged and that society owes you a degree and a career?

You're already being offered a loan to cover your tuition which you don't have to pay back until you're earning, is that not reasonable enough?
Original post by shreddingfish92
No. Maintenance loans are for your cost of living and have recently been increased.

If you're a full-time student on your summer hols you aren't searching for permanent work and therefore shouldn't be eligible for JSA. If you decide to work then odds are you won't be paying any tax and will keep all you earn.

"The money could come from bankers and the rich" - High earners in the UK already pay more tax than the millions of low earners do. Why should you be they be taxed even higher just because you think you're being disadvantaged and that society owes you a degree and a career?

You're already being offered a loan to cover your tuition which you don't have to pay back until you're earning, is that not reasonable enough?


But as I said back in the 70s and 80s students could claim unemolployment benefit in the summer holidays.
Original post by Ambitious1999
But as I said back in the 70s and 80s students could claim unemolployment benefit in the summer holidays.


You mean back when there were basically no students?

Employers used to drive the need for highly educated individuals but this is no longer the case. This explains why they almost always paid for their future employee's degrees in the 70s and 80s. Nowadays with everybody wanting a degree, regardless of whether it offers a societal benefit, it is no longer economically responsible to offer such payments.

Instead, more incentives need to be given to employers, big and small, to create higher demand for highly educated individuals.
I personally believe you should only get from the system when you've put something into it. (The loans are different because most people do pay at least a bit of it off, even though alot don't pay all of it loads of people do pay a good amount off)

Besides if you're on JSA...then you're not searching for full time work which is the point of it. You should get yourself more organised and start looking for a summer job before the rush starts. JSA should be an absolute last resort. You should try everything you can to support yourself first.
Reply 5
Avatar for Jenx301
Jenx301
19
Student loans are calculated to cover the costs of your whole year - including the summer. Students sometimes forget this and go "yeah i have so much money left for the end of term" and blow it all then are left with nothing. If things are really dire there are hardship funds from universities if you can show you really are in need. Otherwise I would suggest getting a job.
We're gonna be on benefits for the rest of our lives with the thousands of pounds of debt that we're in and the current level of unemployability. Might as well start early.








(This is a joke. Please don't cry.)



Posted from TSR Mobile
What a naive argument.
Original post by Ambitious1999
Hi
Should university students be allowed to claim benefits to help with living expenses and accommodation?
Maintenance grants and loans are quite poor.

I think they should be allowed to claim income support and housing benefit, to pay for books, food and their accommodation. In the summer holidays they should be allowed to claim Jobseeker's Allowance as they were back in the 1970s. My teacher said he used to sign on in the summer and that kept him going until they stopped it
:frown:

The money could come from the rich and bankers paying more taxes also a mansion tax could help.
We are wanting better our lives and society should do more to help us achieve our goals, to become: doctors, engineers, teachers, politicians sociologists architects etc. Students are the nations future.


Or you could get a job like so many students do.
Original post by Ambitious1999
Hi
Should university students be allowed to claim benefits to help with living expenses and accommodation?
Maintenance grants and loans are quite poor.

I think they should be allowed to claim income support and housing benefit, to pay for books, food and their accommodation. In the summer holidays they should be allowed to claim Jobseeker's Allowance as they were back in the 1970s. My teacher said he used to sign on in the summer and that kept him going until they stopped it
:frown:

The money could come from the rich and bankers paying more taxes also a mansion tax could help.
We are wanting better our lives and society should do more to help us achieve our goals, to become: doctors, engineers, teachers, politicians sociologists architects etc. Students are the nations future.


You're aware that the JSA rate for under 25s is less than the minimum maintenance loan right?
Original post by Ambitious1999
Hi
Should university students be allowed to claim benefits to help with living expenses and accommodation?
Maintenance grants and loans are quite poor.

I think they should be allowed to claim income support and housing benefit, to pay for books, food and their accommodation. In the summer holidays they should be allowed to claim Jobseeker's Allowance as they were back in the 1970s. My teacher said he used to sign on in the summer and that kept him going until they stopped it
:frown:

The money could come from the rich and bankers paying more taxes also a mansion tax could help.
We are wanting better our lives and society should do more to help us achieve our goals, to become: doctors, engineers, teachers, politicians sociologists architects etc. Students are the nations future.


They can claim benefits just not unemployment benefits


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by shreddingfish92
No. Maintenance loans are for your cost of living and have recently been increased.

If you're a full-time student on your summer hols you aren't searching for permanent work and therefore shouldn't be eligible for JSA. If you decide to work then odds are you won't be paying any tax and will keep all you earn.

"The money could come from bankers and the rich" - High earners in the UK already pay more tax than the millions of low earners do. Why should you be they be taxed even higher just because you think you're being disadvantaged and that society owes you a degree and a career?

You're already being offered a loan to cover your tuition which you don't have to pay back until you're earning, is that not reasonable enough?


Maintenance loans are nowhere near enough to cover the cost of living for most people. They usually won't even cover 39 weeks accommodation.
Original post by JordanL_
Maintenance loans are nowhere near enough to cover the cost of living for most people. They usually won't even cover 39 weeks accommodation.


Get a part-time job or stop complaining :smile:
the only thing students should be able to claim are disability benefits to cope with the added costs of their disability

students already get loans/grants to cover their living costs (and with budgeting and working this should cover summer as well) so why would they need benefits as well?
Original post by TrueDetective01
Get a part-time job or stop complaining :smile:


I have a part-time job.

Is that your solution to everything? Maybe we should scrap the entire welfare system and tell people to start working. Just pretend that unemployment isn't at 5% due to a lack of jobs.

Personally I believe the maintenance loan should be enough that people don't have to work part-time, so everyone gets an equal opportunity and has more time to extend their learning or do things outside of their course.
£8k per academic year is more than enough outside London, £5-6k for accommodation and £2-3k to live off.

Inside London it's absurd as the max loan of £10k doesn't even cover rent.
Original post by JordanL_
I have a part-time job.

Is that your solution to everything? Maybe we should scrap the entire welfare system and tell people to start working. Just pretend that unemployment isn't at 5% due to a lack of jobs.

Personally I believe the maintenance loan should be enough that people don't have to work part-time, so everyone gets an equal opportunity and has more time to extend their learning or do things outside of their course.


I do want the entire tax system to be abolished so that all people can take in the money they earn from labour :smile: and students should know how to budget
Original post by JordanL_
Maybe we should scrap the entire welfare system and tell people to start working. Just pretend that unemployment isn't at 5% due to a lack of jobs.


It certainly isn't due to lack of jobs. There's currently 2728 jobs being advertised at my local job centre in Exeter. It's not difficult for people to find work if they're actually looking. The current welfare system is too generous to the long-term willfully unemployed.
Original post by shreddingfish92
It certainly isn't due to lack of jobs. There's currently 2728 jobs being advertised at my local job centre in Exeter. It's not difficult for people to find work if they're actually looking. The current welfare system is too generous to the long-term willfully unemployed.


Thats another ignorant minded comment which if not challenged ends up people thinking its the truth.

In my home town there is 3000 unemployed and ZERO actual jobs, its been a common thing as it was originally a factory town till the 80s till Thatcher closed the factories and near many mining towns, more and more shops are bare in the town and when it started to recover we now have foreign people to compete with, thats not being racist, there was a big factory 11 miles from town that since 2005 (in fact by 2008 at latest) cut down UK workforce so much that in 2006 the management had to learn Polish to communicate to workers! In fact the company got fined last year for having NO British workers

This used to be a factory popular with students and people in the final years of school for high pay and you could pick your shift and work 4 hours a week if wanted £9 a hour and double pay for weekends, now its all minimum wage and Polish staff.

So what work is there goes to foreign workers.

If you jobsearch there its almost all Avon representatives or self employed jobs that require a car and must be over 25 etc, not even zero hour work is available on the rare chance a employer is looking it is zero hour or "must be flexible" as in if you had 2 zero hour jobs and both wanted you to work at same time you must work at both or be fired instantly.

When people make the ignorant comment about plenty of work they never see what sort of work it is, it could be 20 positions for a self employed person who works on commision, it could be for somewhere in middle of nowhere on a zero hour contract that has no public transport and requires less than a hours notice it could be anything but people just look at the number of "jobs" and think therefore a lot of work is out there.

Yet near London where my cousins live they can walk out of work and get jobs same day, and of course they kept talking about the "lazy people on benefits" and "if they wanted they can get a job same day"
IMO yes they should because those who come from very low income families need them. Many people who go to uni have working tax credits to help them get through everyday life despite whether they're in accommodation or living at home with family.

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