Joshua Bishop, not his real name, hoped higher education would help him escape his council estate but the 27-year-old hasn’t secured a role since his course ended in October
A masters graduate has complained that claiming benefits is like a ‘full-time job’, suggesting that working individuals ‘would have a breakdown’ dealing with the paperwork and weekly job centre meetings.
Joshua Bishop, who wished to change his name to avoid losing his benefits, had hoped that higher education would help him escape his situation, but the 27-year-old hasn’t landed a job since his course ended in October.
The former business student started sharing his struggles on TikTok, where he controversially criticised the ‘bull****’ hoops the Government makes jobseekers jump through. Joshua receives £400 per month in benefits and a council flat, provided he attends a weekly 30-minute meeting and provides detailed evidence of his job search.
His TikTok post was captioned ‘It’s a full-time job trying to claim benefits with none of the positives. Most workers would have a breakdown if they had to live as a Universal Credit bandit for a week’.
Joshua has since been labelled a ‘lazy scrounger’ and a ‘useless member of society’ by irate users who believe he simply ‘can’t be bothered’ attending the meetings. The philosophy undergraduate has hit back at critics, calling them ‘classist posh c****’ who have never experienced being on Universal Credit.
He claims the meetings are a ‘humiliation ritual’ where staff attempt to ‘shame’ and ‘psychologically manipulate’ him into accepting jobs unrelated to his education.
Joshua, from Edinburgh, Scotland, expressed his frustration at the process of gathering evidence for meetings, stating he’s a ‘graduate not some refugee trying to milk the system’. He shared his hopes of finding a job where he can utilise his masters degree, otherwise, he’ll have to resort to unrelated work or making money from TikTok videos.
He said: “It’s not just one meeting per week for 30 minutes because you can be looking for work but you need to prove it too. It’s like a humiliation ritual.”
Joshua admitted feeling burned out and demoralised after numerous unsuccessful interviews.
He joked about his TikTok success, saying: “Maybe this TikTok thing will work out and I won’t need a real job anyway. I can just make videos and make money. That would be cool.”
After completing his undergraduate degree in 2021, Joshua worked in various roles including retail, factories, and freelance music production and video editing. Despite hoping his masters degree would give him an edge, he has struggled to secure a job in related fields such as sales, marketing, and HR.
The former student spends around two hours per day on tasks to obtain his Universal Credit payments and exchanges emails with his careers coach five times per week.
Joshua started posting on TikTok after a friend gave him a camera, documenting his daily life and job market frustrations. His viral post has garnered over 900 comments, mostly negative.
Joshua said: “The reaction has been overwhelmingly negative. It’s not much good for your mental health but I’ve got a pretty thick skin. Fundamentally I think it’s just posh c**ts that are hating on me and I don’t think anyone has ever had to sign on.”
If you haven’t had to walk through those doors and collect your cheque then I don’t care what you’re saying.
“You can see from the comments how the average person views someone on Universal Credit.”
The video shows him walking to a mental health clinic in the hope of being signed off from the job centre meetings but he’s not been successful yet.
One TikTok user commented: “Comparing a full time job to attending one singular meeting a week is insane.”
A second angrily said: “Absolute wet wipe! [There’s] plenty of jobs out there! Your attitude stinks! You shouldn’t receive any benefits! I’d make people work for their benefits, picking litter or dog s**t up! “A third said: “Lazy scrounger.”
A fourth wrote: “What a useless member of society. Just can’t be bothered to work or to go to a single meeting a week so then cries ‘mental health’. Give it a break.”
However, one agreed with Joshua and wrote: “The pressure is real if you’re not in that head-space.”
Another added: “I claimed benefits for a month and it was such a hassle I really questioned if it was worth it.
A third said: “Hope you get better soon.”
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