Travel to Interview Scheme-madness!

pigman1

I have just found out the job centre plus ceased the travel to interview scheme in April.....see previous forum posts. However I applied for and got travel to interview help from the Margate office to go to Manchester in August this year-which leaves me somewhat confused until I found out the job centres now have a 'discretionary fund' on which they can draw....I now live elsewhere and am still unemployed-I have been invited to interview over two hundred miles away next week. The rail fare is £179.50, which, under the old scheme the job centre would of course have paid, or the equivalent of 25p per mile if using your own vehicle-whichever is the least. In my case I can still (just) afford to run a car and as such would normally have expected to receive around £100 in travel expenses. Finding out the scheme is now discretionary and depends on a local fund, does anybody know, if the job centre refuse to fund my travel expenses, if I refuse to attend the interview on the grounds that I cannot afford the cost of attending, can the job centre then 'sanction' me for not attending the interview? Secondly, though it's unlikely one of our over paid and over rated politicians are reading this, can you explain to me and the millions of other unemployed how we are supposed to afford to attend interviews if the cost of doing so is nearly three weeks JSA in rail fares?

Derivative

The rail fare is £179.50

Bloody hell. I travel Hull-Oxford regularly which is about 200 miles and it comes out far cheaper. I suppose it does become more difficult with it being next week.

tomjonesrules

The ADF has always existed, but now the TIS has come under the same budget, and is discretionary as opposed to a right. Where are you travelling to/ from? Have you looked at other means of travel - bus, split ticketing etc?

hcb42

where is the job? is that 200 miles away as well?

If it is, I wouldnt expect it to be paid expenses, nor would I think you would be sanctioned.

do they even know you have been offered the interview....if not, what the eye doesnt see...although you wont get the expenses then of course.

tomjonesrules

hcb42 wrote: »

where is the job? is that 200 miles away as well?

If it is, I wouldnt expect it to be paid expenses, nor would I think you would be sanctioned.

do they even know you have been offered the interview....if not, what the eye doesnt see...although you wont get the expenses then of course.

Whilst interview expenses were commonly paid by employers a few years ago, they certainly are not now. Otherwise, I agree with everything you have written.

hcb42

I might have misled there with the use of the term expenses, I would not expect the travel to be paid by employer, although a few will, but I definitely would not expect the job centre to pay it...

tomjonesrules

hcb42 wrote: »

I might have misled there with the use of the term expenses, I would not expect the travel to be paid by employer, although a few will, but I definitely would not expect the job centre to pay it...

I'm comparing it back to a far too generous time, in 2005 I claimed from the JCP for two trips to Belfast which cost £400+ each (flights plus hotel) and they were paid without question. The awful irony is that had I chosen to, they would also have been paid by the NI Civil Service, without checking with each other. I fear that the past generosity has resulted in our current 'austerity', and know for a fact that a fair few candidates claimed from both.