When the government gives benefits to the unemployed until they can find new employment, they expect you either to be actively seeking work or joining courses to help you get a job. They can help out after a certain period of time with a grant for training which is there to apply for if your course involves you getting retrained to update further skills used in the job you are looking for. If the person feels they need to update their skills, the grant is there to apply for for everyone but you have to be out of work for around six months to qualify for this sort of grant. There are also various benefits available to the unemployed that are available to apply for but recent reports are making it clear that there are going to be changes made to benefits. The way in which they are given out is going to be more on an assessment basis rather harder than before. People are going to be finding it a lot harder to get benefits!