‘I paid £50k for my degree – now I'm on Universal Credit'

Telegraph

10 hours ago

Those fresh out of university are used to hearing the question: 'What's next?'
Yet for more and more graduates, the answer is a seemingly endless job search and – depressingly – an application for benefits.
There are more than 630,000 graduates claiming Universal Credit, according to data released last week by Parliament.
This number, which is equal to more than one in nine of all those claiming, represents graduates of all ages – not just those who have recently left university. However, the growing number of benefit-claiming graduates underlines how difficult the job market is for young people. Graduate unemployment rose between 2023 and 2024, according to the latest Government data.
Those entering the job market say they face an increasingly dehumanising experience where they are being rejected by AI bots before ever speaking to a human.
Graduates told The Telegraph that they'd been left with no choice but to move back into their parents' homes, take unpaid internships, and in some cases apply for benefits – as they face a tightening jobs market.
Serena, is on universal credit after graduating from the University of Warwick in 2023. The 23-year-old, who amassed over £50,000 in student debt from her undergraduate course, originally wanted to work in marketing, and has had some freelance roles. She is currently applying to any job advert she sees.
'The Jobcentre is one of the most demoralising places. They are meant to help and support you getting into work, but they really don't do that.
'A lot of the time I go in for my five-minute appointment, and they say: 'How's the job search going?' And I say, 'Yeah, I've applied for all of these, but I've not got anything,' then they say, 'OK, we'll see you next week.''
'A little bit of extra money to help'
Serena, who moved back in with her parents in west London, says that a number of her friends are in a similar situation.
'I was one of the first [of us] to realise that university graduates can get universal credit. We didn't realise it was a thing, so I got a lot of my friends to apply for it as well. It's a little bit of extra money to help us.'
She adds: 'My friends and I are all struggling to find jobs post-university. It took some of my friends a year to even find short-term or part-time jobs. I got rejected from Wetherspoons, and I have two years of bartending experience.
'I don't even know what companies are looking for at this point.'
Companies have become less keen to hire graduates – who have previously been seen as cheap labour with high potential.
Data from jobs platform Reed shows that vacancies for graduates – typically at the bottom rung of the ladder – have almost halved from 7pc of total available jobs in 2018 to just 4pc now. According to Indeed, graduate job postings in the 12 months to June are down 33pc compared to a year earlier.
The shift is being accelerated by artifical intelligence (AI). Dario Amodei, chief of AI firm Anthropic, has warned that half of administrative, managerial, and tech jobs for the under-30s could vanish before the end of the decade.
The employment rate for graduates aged between 21 and 30 dropped from 87.2pc in 2023 to 86.5pc in 2024, according to the latest government figures.
'A never-ending cycle'
Sofia, another 23-year-old living in London with her parents, is also struggling for employment. She studied at the London School of Economics, and graduated in 2023.
Having done a finance internship as a student and not enjoyed it, she decided to chase her dream of being a journalist.
She's now applied for hundreds of jobs. But she has repeatedly been told that she doesn't have enough experience – even for internships. 'It's honestly just a never-ending cycle. The way to get experience is by doing things for free,' she says.
'I don't even bother with entry-level jobs. I apply for internships, grad schemes – things which are really aimed at my level.
'If you do even get a rejection, that's nice.'
Sofia says that she's been offered a volunteer role at a local radio station. The catch? She'd have to pay £10 a month to the station to do it.
Last September, more than a year into her search, she applied for Jobseekers' Allowance. She says: 'I had the Jobseekers' Allowance, which is only for six months, and it didn't help me get a job.'
The benefit pays as much as £72.90 a week for those aged up to 24, and up to £92.05 for those over 25. Those out of work, or on less than 16 hours a week, are eligible as long as they have paid Class 1 National Insurance in the past two to three years – and it can be claimed alongside Universal Credit. How much a claimant gets is dependent on their circumstances.
In the meantime, Sofia has been tutoring for an hour a week online and working in retail to try to make ends meet. She is considering going back to university for a master's degree to help her get more experience.
'I was lucky enough that my parents were very much like, 'You go after what you want.' They could see I was putting in all this effort, using all of the resources that I have,' she says.
'You really just have to have the odds in your favour. No matter how special you think you are, it's not going to affect anything.'
Nicholas Stephenson, a recent graduate and researcher at think tank Onward, says: 'This is increasingly a problem affecting graduates – regardless of university, degree or classification.
'I know Biomedicine, Physics, and PPE graduates from Russell group universities who are still searching for a job a year after graduation and can't even secure anything part-time, leaving them with no choice but to go on to Universal Credit.'
Stephenson adds that where there are surpluses of young people, retailers and fast food outlets are inundated with job applications. He says: 'A single opening for a sales assistant my friend applied for received over 500 applications and held a group interview with nearly 50 candidates.
'It's so bad that even charities are ghosting people trying to gain some experience through volunteering.'
'I'm not desperate enough'
Some have decided not to take benefits and to instead rely on their family, or whatever income they can scrounge together.
Another 23-year-old graduate based in Hampshire, who did not want to be named, said: 'I haven't taken Jobseekers' Allowance, because I've had freelance work to tide me over. The way that my life is set up, I don't feel like I am someone who should be taking Jobseekers' Allowance at the same time, because I don't think I'm desperate enough.'
Emily, another graduate avoiding claiming benefits, graduated from the University of Glasgow last year. Despite having experience as a student journalist, she failed to land a postgraduate role in the media or public relations, so she's taken a job working in a call centre.
However, she says that a number of friends who are in similar positions have been forced to claim either the Jobseeker's Allowance or Universal Credit.
Emily adds: 'I have applied for hundreds of roles since before I graduated. The way applicants are treated by these companies is disgraceful. We go through three or four stages, jumping through every hoop, to not even be sent a courtesy rejection email or feedback on where we went wrong. It's really dehumanising.'
The pressure of finding a job as a graduate is high for these young people. Serena wants to live up to the expectations she has for herself – and to build a life of her own.
She says: 'It feels disappointing. Especially being the first to go to university in my family, you have these expectations put upon you that you go to university and then you're going to get a good corporate job and earn a good salary, and live that life.
'It can be quite disheartening. I want to be able to build a life.'