You don’t get Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits here unless you were laid off or fired through no fault of your own and you’ve worked there so many quarters already, with the exception of emergency unemployment. The UK must have a very different system. In most states here, the employers are taxed for the initial UI, only extensions and emergency UI come from all taxpayers. There are a few states where the employee is also taxed.
"languishing on benefit because work simply does not pay"
These people are "on the dole", not unemployment, from 16 or out of HS and not working.
For all the UK media I have read, I have not seen a difference between their welfare and unemployment payments.
One thing I would like to see emphasized in U.S.A. media is that when unemployment insurance runs out, qualified individuals go on welfare.
And to qualify for welfare, one usually needs to be married with kids!!
There is no welfare for singles who have run out of unemployment insurance.
yitbos
But the same theory holds true here. I have family members who milk unemployment for everything its worth. One maxed out his 99 weeks because he couldn't find the perfect job (and lo and behold, when the benes ran out, he found a job). Another one spends 8 months a year working and 4 months a year on unemployment. Any time you give people money, there is a risk they are going to milk the system because they are not forced to work to earn it.
Correct. Under the US system and some others, things are different.
There are few people who suddenly take a job once benefits end, indicating that it's not just people waiting to take a job, but that the jobs are unavailable. One thing that separates the job market from a freely adjusting free market is that one usually can't just set one's sights lower and get a job, as many employers will not hire someone who is overqualified for fear they will leave if they find another opportunity.