MSE News: Unemployed to get free bus travel

duchy

There was a woman declaiming what a wonderful idea it was on the radio this morning and commented he bus fare between Hastings and Brighton was £17 and now it would be "free" ......the big flaw (apart from the inevitable abuse) is it is only for a month -some employers take longer than that to arrange interviewers...and...what the heck kind of jobs are they expecting people to find that they can afford £17 x 5 days a week so £85 just on bus fare !!

What is wrong with the jobcentres simply issuing a day pass for the bus once someone has a confirmed interview ? It'd make a lot more sense.

passatrider

I fully support any measures to help people who struggle with finances to get work. ]
However, who's going to end up paying for this in the long run? People in work who already pay very high fares to use buses that's who. Companies like First and Arriva run for profit and nothing else, so they will not want to see their profits affected.

If it was funded by the Government then it would still be the tax payer who pays for this anyhow.

There's no such thing as a free lunch!

countingthepennies

Passatrider you took the words out of my mouth. I have been unemployed , Ive been a student, Ive worked two jobs and done a degree at the same time, Im a single parent, so I can see this argument from all sides. But for goodness sake why do I bother going to work? I pay a fortune for bus fares to get to work, as do a lot of people. Free bus passes will be abused by those who will see it as another hand out, and tax payers will pay yet again :-(

VT82

Sounds like a fair idea. Most of the costs are fixed once the timetable is set up anyway, so a few more people using the system shouldn't mean it really 'costs' much to implement.

Good on having the time limit as well - should stop people adding it to the list of things they will lose out on if they start working (free prescriptions etc.) to convince themselves not to bother working at all.

Dave_C_2

I remember back in my jobseekers allowance days (3-4 years ago) being offered expenses for interviews. Does this still happen?
If so these bus passes are just another handout to be abused.

Dave

amjustagirl

Seriously another freebie?! and this is going to encourage some layabouts to get a job.. yeah right, more like just another excuse to not work ps not saying this about all unemployed people by the way, i know some people want to work

zzzLazyDaisy

According to this, jobcentre travel discount cards have been available for some time. I wonder how many people know about them, or have been able to obtain one?

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/job_centre_plus_travel_discount

out_of_cash

This will be some help, but is it available if your on the slave programme?

The media said it will be free travel? not just the half priced fares which have apparently been available for months and are it would seem a closely guarded secret.

out_of_cash

amjustagirl wrote: »

Seriously another freebie?! and this is going to encourage some layabouts to get a job.. yeah right, more like just another excuse to not work ps not saying this about all unemployed people by the way, i know some people want to work

see ya down the boozer, :beer:

zzzLazyDaisy

out_of_cash wrote: »

The media said it will be free travel? not just the half priced fares which have apparently been available for months and are it would seem a closely guarded secret.

Apparently you need one of these travel cards to get the free travel. I wonder how many people actually have these magic bits of plastic?