Volunteer work with a difference how do I explain to JSA

Owain_Moneysaver

You are also I think entitled to a 2 week 'holiday' once a year.

nearlyrich

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

You are also I think entitled to a 2 week 'holiday' once a year.

You can holiday in the UK but if you go abroad you have to sign off.

laurenjs88

nearlyrich wrote: »

You can holiday in the UK but if you go abroad you have to sign off.

Would the OP not still technically be in the UK though? Just on British Waters instead?

baza52

is the fact you are fully qualified not enough to get you a job?
3 weeks on a boat looking at whales/dolphins isnt gonna sway an application that much.
sound like an unpaid adventure holiday to me.
Where do i sign up

Kittytumnus

baza52 wrote: »

is the fact you are fully qualified not enough to get you a job?
3 weeks on a boat looking at whales/dolphins isnt gonna sway an application that much.
sound like an unpaid adventure holiday to me.
Where do i sign up

I am not going to enter in to any arguments with Trolls I know there a few of them.

To those who have given me some very valuable info I thankyou very much.

I did not mean that Job Centre advisors are bad or poor in the sense that they are not great at their jobs. I have not met one in my job centre whom is bad and once I have dug myself out of the miserable and depressing hole that is to be without a job. I have made a promise to myself that I will use my first pay cheque to buy something nice for them all to share - probably some cream cakes. I have spoken to an advisor on he telephone this morning who tells me that it seems that to stop my claim and put myself further into debt may be the only sensible solution as the current laws do not allow descretion for anyone with an "unusual" circumstances. Although many thanks to the person who contributed to the discussion with the "work camp" legislation idea - you are very kind and very helpful.

Re the 48hour Helicopter lift off a working government vessel to get me back to shore for a non existant job interview (the market is dead where I live at the mo - even the advisors at the JC say so!!!!!!!!!) I am afraid they only Medevac you off these things as costs are too high for any other reason.

In conclusion to my question I have a few points I wish to address:

Regards the above quote. To be a Joint Nature Conservancy Council Registered Marine Mammal Observer and Passive Accoustic Monitor you have to invest your time and money into the certification. As the Tutor who's course I attended explained that the certification alone will NOT get you work as an Environmental Consultant working within this field in the UK/Worldwide even if you have a Masters Degree in Marine Biology. To be able to correctly identify and Scientifically record the data you need experience. Most jobs in this field require 5 years actual paid Survey experience. Having said that I have already been a volunatary Seabird and Cetacean Surveyor for Marine Ecology Charities for over 3 years and have already accrued some valuable experience. More importantly I have a friend who surveys with me with the exact same background as myself in a senior commercial management positon who now works one month on and one month on for £300 a day in the middle of the north sea upholding Conservation Laws in the offshore Renewables sector. So I know that the effort that I am making now WILL actually pay off and get me out of the depressing state that is living in an area where there are no jobs and no hope - Rural England.

I am that person that the everyones says they hope will get off their !!! and try and find a job. This is what I am doing in an area where the only jobs available attract employees from Eastern Europe in minimum wage carrot grading jobs via gangmasters that do not adhere to UK Health and Safety Laws. I am trying to do something I know will work to enable me to get off benefits, have a new career and be able to pay tax as I have done since the age of 16.

I just want to add that the certification and experience on my CV have already attracted one possible future work offer out of the 40 highly specialist company's I have written to since qualifying. I have already had one very interesting email from a support vessel company seeking a consultant for work starting in March (that's if they win the tender they have bid for! Work with the UK waters providing the Passive Accustic Monitoring and MMO work for the Renewables Industry only begins when the sea state is calmer so in the winter months he requirement is just not there, worldwide on Seismic survey vessels is a year round job and pays a lot more.

It is highly specialised but there are ways for those who have the skills, knowlege and most importantly the experience.

I will not go into full detail about the volunteer work offer I have had, but in response to the above Troll who is obviously hungry and needs feeding. I would like to bore you with the following: The vessel I will be on is a multi agency vessel with scientists working on conservation projects to protect the UK's Marine Ecology to ensure you and your children will still be able to enjoy your fish and chips . The vessel does not have space for people on Jolly's ( Jolly's are the now the sole preserve of our Politicians & fat cat business people and they have their own yaughts for this kind of thing, Cameron and Mandelson spent their summer on one this year in sunnier climes! These guys seem to be off the hook about their fully expensed life now we have the a lot of jobless to bash!). The volunteer work I will be doing is directly related to the work I will be paid to do and is at the higest level. Infact the paid work I am likely to get will not be as hard or include the level of data recording as the work I will be doing whilst onboard. I will work all daylight hours and I will record all Seabirds, use my experience and skills to find hard to spot Mammals, Flotsom and ships data as the only representative of the charity I am volunteering for. It is hard work and requires skills and stamina. Its at a senior level and I cannot tell you how much of a boost that this will be to helping me out of unemployment and into work. It equates to someone who has qualified as butler being offered a few weeks unpaid work with Her Majesty the Queen.

So it seems that the conclusion to my question seems to be that the current legislation regarding job seeking and training and work experience whilst on Jobseekers Allowance is based at the lowest local level. If you are a person from Lowestoft and you have been offered training and work experience on an actual Oil Rig - which is what you need even if you are going on at basic entry level, then the system is not flexible to allow this. It seem to me that the governments blurb about getting those of us who through no fault of our own find ourselves redundant and jobless back to work and if now working for charities to get us back into the swing of work only equates to picking up litter of the floor that will only give you experience of a poorly paid job. If you are aiming higher or towards a job which actually pays well and is not the norm and you are intelligent enough to find your own training, work experience or voluntary work directly related to the career you wish to move into to get yourself off the dole - FORGET IT or suffer without the meagre amount of cash they give you to try and heat your home in sub zero temperatures (if you dont have kids no winter fuel payment)!

I would like to thank David Cameron and the Lib Dems personally for being as useful as a chocolate teapot when it comes to changing the benefits system to help proffessionals living in the depressed rural areas of the UK get off the dole, out of severe debt and into jobs that will actually pay the tax that it takes to make this country Great.

The next time you read of the great plans from the government to help people off the dole - just remember the system is only aimed at the lowest common denominator.

Please excuse my rant but I have no money, I am in serious debt and I still have an ambition to get on in life. If any of you begrudge a single 36 year old for having spirit left in her despite a year of hardship with no money no job and no hope then may I wish you much Karma and a Very Merry Christmas!

To all of those very kind people who have offered help and advise - Many thanks!

I seriously think that the only route will be signing off - I cannot afford it but I have my self respect intact and I am not going to give up that easily.

I will be contacting my MP as this rule regards 48hr availability to take a job is pretty stupid as the jobs I am suitable for will not ask you to take the job this fast anyway. There needs to be an intelligent re think as a LOT of unemployed now are high end professionals and they need a different service to the standard and it the legislation that is inflexible not the poor staff in the jobcentres whom I have always sympathised with.

As the Modern day Tiny Tim would say "May your God or Deity Bless us, Each and everyone of us!"

Many thanks any more info greatly recieved, but sadly I think that my situation doesnt fit into the rigid box of the current assistance for those unfortunate to be out of work

Voyager2002

In response to #16:
It does sound as if your placement fits into the description of a "work camp", so check out the details fully before you start complaining. And congratulations to the poster who dug up this obscure but very helpful section of the rules'
while I have zero sympathy for the present government, I have to say that the regulations that are getting in your way are not their invention, but are more like fifty years old. The rules of this kind were even more restrictive back in the 1980s than they are today.

JC9297

Kittytumnus wrote: »

I will be contacting my MP as this rule regards 48hr availability to take a job is pretty stupid as the jobs I am suitable for will not ask you to take the job this fast anyway. There needs to be an intelligent re think as a LOT of unemployed now are high end professionals and they need a different service to the standard and it the legislation that is inflexible not the poor staff in the jobcentres whom I have always sympathised with.

The thing is it isn't about you getting your ideal/dream job or what your qualifications are. It is about you getting any job that you are capable of doing (even if you consider it beneath you) that provides an income, so that you can stop claiming JSA.

Arg

dmg24 wrote: »

That would be unreasonably limiting her job search, which would lead to a sanction.

I'm sure it's not different than anyone who lives somewhere remote.

sammyjammy

You shouldn't give up just yet, as has already been suggested you can take two weeks of this period as holiday, worth looking into.

Best of luck to you.

Sam

dookar

I don't think this would be a work camp. I'm tempted to say you will not be able to retain entitlement.

There are two provisions:

if you are a mariner (I have no idea if you are) outside of GB, you may be treated as available providing you would be available were you in GB.

If you are on an employment related course you may be treated as available.

In a massively tenuous bout of straw clutching I think linking those two somehow is the only option you have to attempt to retain JSA for one of the periods in question.