The recession, benefits, the safety net, and the learning curve

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Has he? I never notice.
Why?

He's one of the lucky ones: he remembered he had a life. And a master's degree to do. which is a shame, he was nice. I enjoyed his posts and he was always up for a nice double entendre in the evenings when I let my sense of humour out for a run.

SingleSue

You have to be unemployed, no idea if you have to be longterm or not.

They just threw that in at the last work focused interview in conversation, I had been joking about having to update my wardrobe at the time.

PN, mine would be about the same as yours...almost fell off my chair when she said how much it was and told her I could buy a whole new wardrobe of clothes for myself and all the kids for the next 2 years for that!

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

He's one of the lucky ones: he remembered he had a life. And a master's degree to do. which is a shame, he was nice. I enjoyed his posts and he was always up for a nice double entendre in the evenings when I let my sense of humour out for a run.

So you were exchanging dirty PMs with him.
OK.
Got the picture...

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

So you were exchanging dirty PMs with him.
OK.
Got the picture...

We were quite open about it, not much need for PMs.:D

Oldernotwiser

lostinrates wrote: »

No they dont: their landlords do.

Not sure what you mean by this.

PasturesNew

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Not sure what you mean by this.

If you are a home owner on JSA, you get £64.30 and are responsible for the building insurance/maintenance etc.

If you are a career benefits blagger, you are 99% most likely to be renting and so don't have any of these costs.

PasturesNew

SingleSue wrote: »

You have to be unemployed, no idea if you have to be longterm or not.

They just threw that in at the last work focused interview in conversation, I had been joking about having to update my wardrobe at the time.

PN, mine would be about the same as yours...almost fell off my chair when she said how much it was and told her I could buy a whole new wardrobe of clothes for myself and all the kids for the next 2 years for that!

I am petite, it's very expensive to buy and rare to find... so I pick up bits and pieces when I can find things are almost or vaguely fit. I have no taste or style, so this makes it easier.

I tried to buy a suit for an interview once - there were 4 suits in my town in petite, for the teenage market. So I headed for M&S ... thinking that would be safe. No petites - "if you want a petite, tell us which suit you want and we'll have it sent here"... no good as I needed it that day - and I'd have no idea which suited/fitted me without trying them on anyway.

pipkin71

SingleSue wrote: »

You have to be unemployed, no idea if you have to be longterm or not.

You used to have to be out of work for 6 months, but apparently you can now claim as soon as you're out of work.

Ignore the headline grabbing £300 in the next link, because that covers other things including the interview outfit

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/03/15/jobless-to-receive-300-for-an-interview-suit-115875-21199474/



It really isn't £300 for an outfit. You get a voucher for up to £100 to be spent in the Arcadian group of shops. You take your voucher, pick out your outfit and hand the shop assistant the voucher. You don't get any change from that.

At the time, when those headlines came out there was some furious activity about how shocking the £300 for a suit was, but once you read past the headlines - and there are others, this was the first google threw up - there are funds so that the job seeker can claim up to £300 for various different things. HTH

Edit: Let me find a better link as the first isn't really suitable.

Here's the daily mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1162485/Suits-sir--jobseekers-claim-300-look-smart-interview.html

and my post on a thread about this subject:

Here's the daily mail headline

Suits you, sir - jobseekers can claim £300 so they look smart for their interview

But read down:

Quote:This extra cash will help people pay for what they need when looking for work, whether it be a new suit to look smart for their interview, childcare and travel costs or a bit of money to renew their driving licence.


Quote:Awards, which will be allowed for 'almost anything that will make a significant difference', will be limited to a maximum of £300 per customer per year.

Interesting that it will be a yearly payment. I had thought that it was a one off but had also heard it was every two years.

Quote:It will be up to Jobcentre staff to decide if the money being claimed will help the claimant find work


So yes, it will be at job centre staff discretion. I also wonder then if the clothing allowance part of that £300 will remain at £100 [which is the amount of the voucher claimants currently receive]

longtimelurker_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

Really?
For everybody?
Or just some that meet other criteria? Like ... the long-term unemployed.

My interview outfit is:
- £15 dress I bought in 2000
- £2 jacket from a charity shop
- £4 shoes from a charity shop

But it's a good look ....

All this time I thought you were a man.

mewbie_2

longtimelurker wrote: »

All this time I thought you were a man.

You and Fungus should get together.