Should the UK replace unemployment benefit with a guaranteed 8 hours a week at minimum wage?
Unemployed people in the UK mainly claim Universal Credit, whose standard allowance is £424.90 a month for a single person aged 25 or over in 2026/27, or new-style Jobseeker's Allowance at £95.55 a week. Eight hours at the £12.71 National Living Wage would pay about £101.68 a week, close to the basic allowance but without housing or child elements. The government's Jobs Guarantee, going national from November 2026, offers 18-24s who have been on Universal Credit for 18 months a six-month job of up to 25 hours a week at minimum wage, alongside rather than instead of benefits.
5 Opinions
The country needs to generate thousands of useful jobs that those claiming unemployment must do to receive benefits and remain useful members of society, rather than staying unemployed long term.
Hitler's Germany managed to create work for the unemployed, but we in a liberal democracy for some reason just give them small amounts of money, harangue them to find work somehow and do nothing to create jobs.
I don't really understand how this would be implemented... Creating and supervising millions of fake 8 hour a week state jobs across the country would cost far more in administrative bureaucracy than it saves in benefits.
It's time they sang for their supper.