The post you are reporting:
Your Grace,
I was 16 before my parents took me to one side - apparently my younger siblings were 'too young' to be told - and told me that the older man who visited on occasion was my half brother from my father's previous marriage - Dad had returned from war to find his wife had been having an affair - he divorced her - they showed me the yellowing newspaper clipping reporting it.
I also knew a girl who became pregnant at university - was convinced by her parents that leaving the area for a few months and having the child adopted after birth was the 'best thing to do' (no-one in the village knew she was pregnant) - and spent the rest of her life psychologically scarred.
Both divorce and 'unmarried mothers', as we used to call them, no longer have the same stigma attached - and nor should they. However there are 'unintended consequences' to our good intentions - the rise of single-parent families.
Unfortunately on any metric you want to look at, from educational outcomes, income, physical and mental health, involvement in criminal behaviour etc etc being brought up by your two biological parents statistically produces the best outcome. Fact.
I'm not vilifying single parenthood but I would certainly not recommend or encourage it.
As for the crippling 'six week wait' for UC this (as I'm sure you know) is how it's meant to work:-
The first seven days after you make a claim are called waiting days. The seventh day is the date on which your Universal Credit will be paid each month. This is called your assessment date.
For example, say you lose your job and make a claim for Universal Credit today, November 3. You must wait seven days for your claim to start, making your assessment date November 11. Once the claim is processed, you will be paid on the 11th of each month.
Universal Credit is paid monthly in arrears. This is supposed to mirror the way that most workers are paid by employers.
That means you won't get the payment for your first month until December 8 (the money covers the period between November 11 to December 10). During this time, the benefits office works out how much you're entitled to.
You'd then have to leave seven days for the money to reach your account. So realistically you are unlikely to get the payout until December 18. That is six weeks after you claimed.
If December 18 happened to be a Bank Holiday Monday, you would get the payment on the last working day before that — usually the Friday.
The seven-day waiting period (the week immediately after you submit a claim) doesn't usually apply to the terminally ill; people switching from the old system; someone vulnerable (for example, a victim of domestic abuse); those who have claimed Universal Credit within the past six months; and those splitting up from or moving in with someone who is already claiming.
In these cases, you should get the payment no more than five weeks after you claim.
There is a gradual roll out going through until March 2022 and I honestly believe that in time you and others will be wondering why we ever had a ridiculous system of six different benefits being paid by different offices half of whose employees were trying to chase overpayments.
If I went to the Labour Party to start work next Monday I doubt if they'd be keen on paying me a month in advance (though IF they were a really nice employer they might give me a repayable loan which people CAN apply for under UC as an 'interim payment').