Is travelling expense

scooby088

A reasonable excuse to turn down a job. Over the past few weeks I have been doing some calculations and at minimum wage most places I apply to i cannot afford to get there either by car or public transport. I could walk which is reasonable if the place was local to me.

So is travel costs a reasonable excuse to turn down a job?

InsideInsurance

Are you talking from a personal perspective or an impact on benefits one?

For the former, I would ask why you are applying for jobs that you will know beforehand are not going to be acceptable to you due to the commute. For the later I cannot comment as dont know about the benefits system

bevanuk

You're limiting yourself to jobs though within a very small area.
What is walkable? 3 Miles each way as an utter maximum?

scooby088

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Are you talking from a personal perspective or an impact on benefits one?

For the former, I would ask why you are applying for jobs that you will know beforehand are not going to be acceptable to you due to the commute. For the later I cannot comment as dont know about the benefits system

I apply for jobs in about a maximum of 10 mile radius of my home address as that is what i can afford in travelling expenses, i could cut the cost by getting myself a bike to travel the distance to work. But many of the jobs i apply for are at minimum wage or just above. As for the jobcentre the advisor has been none commital. But i would never turn down a job, it's just about managing finances better.

heretolearn_2

Buses are not normally that expensive for a local day pass and would be a bit more reasonable than restricting yourself just to walking distance, I would have thought. Even on minimum wage if you work full time it's still worth paying a few quid a day on travel.

You sound like you are looking for an excuse not to bother working to be honest. There are more benefits to having a job than just financial ones, I find it hard to believe you would actually be worse off working even with small travel costs, but if you are, if you restrict yourself in this way to only extremely local unskilled work, you might as well say you'll never work again. Sometimes you have to take a longer view - get a job, get some experience, get some more qualifications, get a better job next time that isn't minimum wage etc etc etc. Or sit on the dole the rest of your life. Not a hard choice to me, but your call.

falko89

I am kind of in the same predicament, I search 10 mile radius also, if the position is full time OK, I won't be any better of unless I walk but its a job, but part time is pointless because of the travel costs but these part time roles seem to be very popular these days.

scooby088

I agree full time i would more than likely be comfortable, but as falko89 has pointed out part time roles are becoming more popular and i saw a job advertised as full time but when i interviewed for it was for 20 hours and when i ask if there would more hours available it sort of ends interview there.

Some say by limiting myself to 10 miles but within 10 miles of my location there are another 6 towns. I do want to work and will take anything to get a job but i will not be out of pocket to get a job.

There are no excuses but i need full time hours not these 20-30 hour a week jobs i need 40 hours to be able to live and pay my own way.

Elvisia

I have been in this position, if I go on the tube into London which is about 20 miles away it's cheaper for me than to get on two buses to go to somewhere that's maybe 4 miles away. The Job Centre kept giving me jobs that were in a business park that had no public transport, I did the maths and by the time I had paid all my fares (and walked the last part along a dual carriageway) I would be making less money a week than I was getting in benefits. I explained this clearly and nicely to the man at the JC who then said "oh the 500 bus goes there", and although I am sure it does, it also starts out at a completely different place to where I live. I had to sit on my hands in the end as I nearly slapped him, although this was also due to other stupid comments he made.

In the end I just used to either say I had applied and not heard anything, or else just said "too difficult/expensive to get to" and quickly got on with the next job. I've always worked in London which is a 3 hour round trip, so I'm certainly not saying I would only work close to home.

skintandscared_2

I've commuted to London for nearly 30 years, but only because the pay is much higher, even after taking off the travel costs, and City firms usually give a season ticket loan which is deductible from my monthly salary, meaning I can buy an annual season ticket. That ticket costs about £3.5k, but my salary is about £20k more than I could hope to get locally for the same job, so it's worth it!

Notmyrealname

In my area, the Job Center class the "travel to work area" as up to 30 mile radius and you are expected to look for jobs up to that distance.

scooby088

Notmyrealname wrote: »

In my area, the Job Center class the "travel to work area" as up to 30 mile radius and you are expected to look for jobs up to that distance.

My jobcentre consider a communte of 90 mins each way a time to travel.