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Why it's so hard to get unemployment benefits [video]

19 points by ZeljkoS 6y ago

bsaul 6y ago
Blaming website crashes and design flaws on intentional political decisions... really ? I'm not saying it isn't the case, but as a software developer that would definitely not be the first explanation that would come to my mind (unfortunately for our industry)...
- loopz 6y ago
  Tech solutions are dictated by historical demands, governance and policies. These latter preconditions preclude simplicity, efficiency and robustness. Having talked with developers that now have to route around "classic systems" for handling new "pandemic" requirements; if they decided, they'd just implement UBI. Unfortunately, politicians don't talk to developers and there's just too many intermediaries. So instead, we end up with workarounds piled upon workarounds, for handling all of policy and exceptions.
samsquire 6y ago
TLDR; the systems cannot support the load and they're buggy Why isn't this a federal system? It is in the UK
- DanBC 6y ago
  (I didn't downvote you. I don't think your comment deserves downvotes). The UK system could not cope with covid demand, and we had to make considerable changes to the way benefit is claimed and paid in order to cope. Many people are still stuck not getting the correct benefits. The video talks a lot about decisions made by politicians to appeal to voters by reducing benefit payments: reduce the amount paid each week; reduce the number of weeks that can be claimed for; make it harder to make a claim. All of these are things that happened in the UK system too. (Benefit cap, bedroom tax, 5 week delay, no payment for the 1st week, online applications only, etc etc).
- vertex-four 6y ago
  Have you actually tried to claim Universal Credit in the UK? It's a complete mess - I've supported disabled folk through it and they've stated suicidal thoughts through the process.
- sokoloff 6y ago
  The United States was founded on a premise that federal powers were limited via enumeration and those not enumerated are reserved for the states or the people. As a result, a great many things that other countries do centrally are done in a distributed fashion in the US. [0] - https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/tenth_amendment https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/tenth_amendment
- brudgers 6y ago
  If the UK were a US state it would be 12th largest. Smaller than Michigan. England itself is the size of Alabama. The distance between London and Baku (remember all that griping about the last Europa League final?) is 200km less than the distance between San Diego and Boston. Driving across Texas from Louisiana to El Paso (de Norte) via I10 is about as far as London to Rome. Speaking of which, Louisiana was settled by the French and uses Cannon Law not Common Law. Texas and everything west below the 42nd Parallel was ruled by Spain into the 19th century and for the most part organized around Catholic missions. Texas of course was at one time an independent sovereign nation. California is still officially The Republic of California. Which is a roundabout way of saying that US politics occur in a geographic reality that is incommensurate with the ordinary European conception of a country as a rather small homogeneous political entity. The US National Parks have more area than Germany. Sure that's largely because of Alaska. But that's kind of the point.
dig1 6y ago
Tech is usually a safe haven (of blaming) when someone needs to hide the malfunctioning system. I saw several cases where public agencies deployed tech not to make things easier for the end-user (set aside the talk they are trying to sell you), but to offload surge of requests - something like the first line of defense.

19 points by ZeljkoS 6y ago

Blaming website crashes and design flaws on intentional political decisions... really ? I'm not saying it isn't the case, but as a software developer that would definitely not be the first explanation that would come to my mind (unfortunately for our industry)...

loopz 6y ago
Tech solutions are dictated by historical demands, governance and policies. These latter preconditions preclude simplicity, efficiency and robustness. Having talked with developers that now have to route around "classic systems" for handling new "pandemic" requirements; if they decided, they'd just implement UBI. Unfortunately, politicians don't talk to developers and there's just too many intermediaries. So instead, we end up with workarounds piled upon workarounds, for handling all of policy and exceptions.

samsquire 6y ago

TLDR; the systems cannot support the load and they're buggy Why isn't this a federal system? It is in the UK

DanBC 6y ago
(I didn't downvote you. I don't think your comment deserves downvotes). The UK system could not cope with covid demand, and we had to make considerable changes to the way benefit is claimed and paid in order to cope. Many people are still stuck not getting the correct benefits. The video talks a lot about decisions made by politicians to appeal to voters by reducing benefit payments: reduce the amount paid each week; reduce the number of weeks that can be claimed for; make it harder to make a claim. All of these are things that happened in the UK system too. (Benefit cap, bedroom tax, 5 week delay, no payment for the 1st week, online applications only, etc etc).
vertex-four 6y ago
Have you actually tried to claim Universal Credit in the UK? It's a complete mess - I've supported disabled folk through it and they've stated suicidal thoughts through the process.
sokoloff 6y ago
The United States was founded on a premise that federal powers were limited via enumeration and those not enumerated are reserved for the states or the people. As a result, a great many things that other countries do centrally are done in a distributed fashion in the US. [0] - https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/tenth_amendment https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/tenth_amendment
brudgers 6y ago
If the UK were a US state it would be 12th largest. Smaller than Michigan. England itself is the size of Alabama. The distance between London and Baku (remember all that griping about the last Europa League final?) is 200km less than the distance between San Diego and Boston. Driving across Texas from Louisiana to El Paso (de Norte) via I10 is about as far as London to Rome. Speaking of which, Louisiana was settled by the French and uses Cannon Law not Common Law. Texas and everything west below the 42nd Parallel was ruled by Spain into the 19th century and for the most part organized around Catholic missions. Texas of course was at one time an independent sovereign nation. California is still officially The Republic of California. Which is a roundabout way of saying that US politics occur in a geographic reality that is incommensurate with the ordinary European conception of a country as a rather small homogeneous political entity. The US National Parks have more area than Germany. Sure that's largely because of Alaska. But that's kind of the point.

dig1 6y ago

Tech is usually a safe haven (of blaming) when someone needs to hide the malfunctioning system. I saw several cases where public agencies deployed tech not to make things easier for the end-user (set aside the talk they are trying to sell you), but to offload surge of requests - something like the first line of defense.