Flexible New Deal (JSA) and travel times to work

miss_d_bus

I have been on Flexible New Deal for a few months and my advisor is completely useless. I wonder what I can do about this? He insists that the 90 minute travel requirement for JSA does NOT start at my home but at the nearest town and rather blamed me for living in a village. Although I do have a car, I am not prepared to drive to London or any far off places as I am not a confident driver and therefore will opt for public transport. However, he is insisting that I get a job in London and commute. This is about 2 and a half hours away by train. I do not believe this is a reasonable travel distance (particularly given that totally inappropriate jobs with low pay they want me to apply for). What can I feasably do about this please? Additionally, he keeps giving me jobs to apply for that I am not able to do such as sales, a post as a teacher (I am not qualified to do this) and a graduate scheme requiring me to be flexible to relocation. I somewhat feel they don't know what to do with a graduate and I am getting the raw end of the deal so they get their money from the government for getting me in supposed sustainable work.
I worry that if I speak to someone higher up in the company that they might make it worse as they are all in it to meet targets.
Thanks

Oldernotwiser

Can't you combine car and rail travel to get to London, taking your car to a station offering a fast service? You don't say where you live but you can travel from Exeter or
Manchester to London in less than 2 and a half hours!

miss_d_bus

I have considered that but where I save time with the car, I lose it by having to make my way into a town centre because the speed is low.
If the time was calculated from the moment I boarded the train then yes it would be within 2 hours. However, i don't want to say on here where I live but I live rurally so getting to the train station adds time. I live in the south east but probably the furthest point one can get from London. Its doable if I want my life to be only about my job. The other thing I've not mentioned is that I also have specific special needs. I'm autistic. If i'm honest, i really can't cope with train delays. I once went to visit my parents in East Anglia by train, and it took me 9 hours because of delays where it would usually be under 4. It was a horrible and frightening experience. After this i bought a car. I don't like driving but i felt at least i could take regular stops and pace myself. My advisor just doesn't understand that I'm not making excuses but I know what I can handle but yet he's given me a sales job to apply for. I can't make eye contact with people - hardly the good basis of a sales based employee!
It would be a breath of fresh air if they'd focus on the skills I do have and help me find appropriate work!

baza52

what skills do you have?
do you want to work?

PasturesNew

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Can't you combine car and rail travel to get to London, taking your car to a station offering a fast service? You don't say where you live but you can travel from Exeter or
Manchester to London in less than 2 and a half hours!

Irrelevant to the OP, but there's only one train from Exeter that gets to London before 9am, it arrives (if on time) at 8:49. That train takes 3 hours, 39 minutes to make the journey, leaving Exeter at 05:10. To get home again, assuming a leaving work time of 5:30pm, if you can make the 18:06 then it's a fast train taking 2 hours 8 minutes, so you'd alight at Exeter at 20:14. If you miss that one, you arrive at Exeter at 21:42.

Then you have to get to/from the station, which might add 30-45 minutes each end. So on a good day you'd leave home at 4am and get back at 9pm, for a 9-5.30 job.

Season tickets for this journey cost:
£187/week
£718/month
£2,154/quarter
£7,480/year

And the OP said the jobs weren't paying a great deal.

Arg

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Can't you combine car and rail travel to get to London, taking your car to a station offering a fast service? You don't say where you live but you can travel from Exeter or
Manchester to London in less than 2 and a half hours!

Whether that's true or not, this topic is about some jobsworth making up nonsense about travelling times.

Oldernotwiser

I was simply pointing out, in a general way, that 2 and a half hours travelling time takes you a long way from London; I wasn't suggesting that anyone commute daily from Manchester or Exeter!

dookar

Arg wrote: »

Whether that's true or not, this topic is about some jobsworth making up nonsense about travelling times.

Strong words. But I see little nonsense.

People who live in rural areas are expected to be prepared to have longer travel times

Oldernotwiser

dookar wrote: »

Strong words. But I see little nonsense.

People who live in rural areas are expected to be prepared to have longer travel times

Obviously, otherwise living in a rural area could be accepted as an excuse for spending long periods unemployed.

speedfreek1000

The rules for travel seem to be 90 minutes one way

http://www.lawcentreni.org/EoR/jobseekers.htm

5.1.3.1 Training schemes and employment programmes

the travel time involved more than 90 minutes in each direction (60 minutes during the first thirteen weeks of entitlement to JSA);

Now this appears to be a guide for DWP DMs (Decision Makers) when deciding if sanctions are valid rather than set in stone, so leaves a lot to the imagination in what length of travel time is reasonable.

The real issue you have here is that any failure to comply with what your FND provider tells will undoubtedly result in you being sanctioned.

So if you do not apply for the jobs this will be the outcome. Now not being qualified to do a job or being unable to get to the job (from what I'm seeing on benefit help boards) is not being accepted by DMs as valid reasons for not applying. As applying for jobs is not classed as a "job seekers direction" it is punishable by a variable sanction of up to 28 weeks.

Note: this is my view on it, based on what I'm reading, which may or may not be correct. I am in no way qualified to comment nor should this be taken a gospil.

miss_d_bus

I will make it clear that I did not move to a rural place in order to make myself cut off from the rest of the world so I could avoid work! I had a job that was 8 minutes drive from my house (45 mins by two buses!) but it didn't work out, hence being currently out of work. Now, there is work around here but not much - its not like its a Scottish island with only sheep as habitants - but the positions are things I am not capable of doing such as labouring. Relocating is not possible, as mentioned in my first post.

baza52 - of course I want to work. I am bored out of my head for starters!! I have a masters degree in information technology but appropriate jobs with requiring those skills are like gold dust here. I made the 'mistake' of specialising in a niche of web design that makes me very unemployable except by big businesses as it is a role often done by computer programmers in small businesses. Ironically, the advisor hasn't found any jobs related to computing.

It sounds a rather valid reason to me - if the job ad states that it requires me to have qualified teacher status and I do not have it, there is no point applying. There are clear rules on the employment of unqualified teaching staff. I cannot see the point in wasting my time, trees, stamps, or the employer's time with an application that cannot be considered. Are the rules so rigid that they defy logic!!? I understand the spirit of this regulation but my advisor is a jobsworth; he seems to think as I am a graduate, I am capable of any job with the word graduate in the title. On that basis, I should be applying to surgical roles!
My conplaint is thus: if I was a low attaining person who was aiming to get into my first role in retail, they are geared up to help me as that is what they do best. As I have perhaps more complicated requirements, I feel like they can get away with giving me a bad service.

I'm considering saying sod it to all of this and go self-employed and start a business but even when I asked for help with this, they keep telling me to go to Business Link and that's it. I thought FND had a scheme for people wanting to go self-employed but it seems like they are denying me that too.

Sorry for any ranting but I am tired of being treated like an inbred idiot.