Unemployment benefits or dole is that monetary assistance which is handed out to the unemployed worker citizens by their respective governments till the time they find a new job or are able to sustain themselves through some business or enterprise.
This assistance is under the umbrella of social security insurance program which in turn is under the aegis of government.
Most of the time the assistance made is good enough for an individual to survive during the lean period before long he or she is able to find some job.
This facility hinges around the policy pursued by a welfare government to secure and safeguard her citizens from the wolf and the specter of hunger and deprivation during unemployment or economic recession.
Though the whole scheme is often criticized as creating lazy bums and idlers who are a constant drag and a drain on the state resources with zero output but its efficacy cannot be denied.
Different criteria exist in different countries for an individual to fulfill the requirements of the dole assistance.
In UK, all the unemployed citizens between 18 to 60 age brackets can seek this assistance and the allowance covers the living expenses.
In USA the benefits are known with the generic name of unemployment compensation.
A total of 99 weeks assistance is provided after successful processing and acceptance of application by the relevant quarters.
Then we have Ghent system in Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Iceland and Finland where the dole or monetary compensation is handed by the trade unions and not by the state.
The eligibility for the monetary assistance is that the individual must be a member of the trade union over a certain period of time.
In Australia, the benefit is famously known as Youth Allowance, which is primarily for youngsters falling into 16 to 24 age bracket and New-start Allowance which is for the individuals who are 21 or above and are willing to engage in enterprises to sustain and employ them.
Unemployment benefits have been the storm centre of major debates as it is considered to be an exercise in futility since money handed out to the unemployed is a sheer waste while there are experts who believe that the money after all is spent and circulated, and in a way it sustains the economy and works as an automatic stabilizer.
A study conducted by Vroman justifies this claim by proving that a single dollar of unemployment compensation gains two dollars for the economy in return.
Nevertheless the humanitarian and philanthropic side of the whole scheme should not be allowed to be water downed by the hard-headed economic wizards, because it is owing to this scheme that millions of people are able to live a decent, civilized and respectable life who would otherwise be living as beggars and criminals if state had not come to their aid and assistance.
After all if a welfare state can't do this much for her citizens than what is the purpose behind keeping and sustaining a ponderous state system which is devoid of all human considerations.