When unemployment fluctuates the bar for earning money is fluctuating. If you're the kind of person who is near that bar you need to take a good hard look at yourself.
This is unpopular here, but I really believe that if you can't provide for yourself financially there is something seriously wrong with you, and I don't think treating you like a child is unreasonable. Beyond washing and feeding yourself, getting an income is pretty much adulthood 101.