Jobcentre wants friend to sign more detailed agreement, he is worried

SJI85

Viberduo wrote: »

Yes and no, he has some money in the bank saved so can afford a deposit but if he moves he worries he will be in the position where he cant find work even though he is in a large area and that way he has to pay rent top ups and bills, however he agrees that he will move soon but wants a plan first.

By rent top ups do you mean the difference between Housing Benefit and rent? Can't he find shared accommodation which could be completely covered by HB?

There'd still be bills to pay, yes, but this might be balanced out by living in a larger area with more job opportunities and a better infrastructure. In other words a) is better able to meet the requirements of the jobcentre when looking for work and b) is more likely to find a job.

Might be worth doing for, say, 12 months and see how it goes, but it's his choice.

As for travelling to his local jobcentre twice a week to conduct job searches there, has he tried to ask if he'd be re-imbursed travel costs?

Viberduo

Laurajo wrote: »

Can he move in with a friend or relative even temporarily?

I appreciate that, without internet access it is going to be difficult to get a job if local employers are limited, however, I suspect the job centre staff will see it more like previous posters have.

As I can see, his options are:

1. Try and get a compromise on the agreement ie he travels into the nearest place with an Internet cafe/library once or twice a week and uses this time to job search.

2. He carries on as he is, and risks sanctioning. Could he not point out to his parents that he might lose his JSA due to them not letting him use the internet?

3. He moves to an area where there is more chance of finding work.

Just as an aside, if he's in the middle of nowhere, how is he planning on getting to work?

I have no idea on the relative situation but from what he has said he has few relatives and was not popular at school so has not many friends and the ones he does have moved about the UK.

When I say middle of nowhere he has got public transport but instead of a direct route buses would go through every small village on the way so a 30 mile journey may take as much as 3 hours as its not a direct route, in fact to get to Glasgow is like £30 return and 4 hours and even short distances are quite expensive as they take long routes.

I did offer to let him sleep on my sofa for a few weeks whilst he finds work, or like me use a local charity that checks out local landlords and lets you pay deposit over a year in bits and pieces and its a little cheaper than regular landlords but my town is a seaside town so the bulk of the work is summer and in a area with some of the highest unemployement in Scotland so he said theres little point.

I think its Glasgow he wants to move to really to find work as an engineer but most areas are either expensive or rough and dodgy

Viberduo

SJI85 wrote: »

By rent top ups do you mean the difference between Housing Benefit and rent? Can't he find shared accommodation which will be completely covered by HB?

There'd still be rents to pay, yes, but this might be balanced out by living in a larger area with more job opportunities and a better infrastructure. In other words a) is better able to meet the requirements of the jobcentre when looking for work and b) is more likely to find a job.

Might be worth doing for, say, 12 months and see how it goes, but it's his choice.

As for travelling to his local jobcentre twice a week to conduct job searches there, has he tried to ask if he'd be re-imbursed travel costs?

No idea, but if its like 30 miles away and 2-3 hours on bus its not very efficient to do that

SJI85

Viberduo wrote: »

No idea, but if its like 30 miles away and 2-3 hours on bus its not very efficient to do that

This is what people are saying. His priority needs to be to search for, and find, work and do whatever is reasonable to find work. Travelling for four hours in a day isn't pleasent, but it's necessary.

If it's only, say, twice a week then I don't think it's unreasonable.

Personally I don't think travelling to the nearest jobcentre is unreasonable, especially when the jobcentre are placing relatively little in the way of demands on him.

By contrast, I've been asked to apply for 20 jobs a week and jobsearch for eight hours a day, seven days a week. This is when I've already got a part-time job, doing 15+ hours of voluntary work a week, and have a permanent job lined up to start in a few weeks.

I understand my situation is very different. Living in a major city (Newcastle) and not rural area. So perhaps it's unfair to compare. But you must see where certain people are coming from?

He can leave at 11AM, arrive at about 1PM, do three hours jobsearching there, then come home?

Poppie68

Sounds like your friend will have a problem even if he ever does manage to get a job, how is he expecting to get there?
I think he needs to be focusing on moving even if it means into a shared household and claiming HB, this will solve his problem of no internet access and transport problems leaving him to focus on finding a job..because to be honest not alot is happening at the moment... he can't do this, because of that and he can't do that, because of this!(according to you).
His life is never going to get any better unless he makes the effort to change it.

xylophone

The first step would be to move to where he is likely to find a job?

Dunroamin

If he genuinely wants to work and obviously doesn't get on with his parents, why on earth is he living at their home in an area with so few employment opportunities?

mountainofdebt

I would recommend spareroom.co.uk - as others have said, if he moves then he has a better chance of getting a job whether that be a stop gap one or one in his chosen field.

tbh it sounds as if he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't as far as his parents are concerned - so my first priority would be getting the hell out of there.

sp1987

Haven't read all the replies above owing to lack of time (apologies if I'm mentioning something already covered off) but does he have any friends locally with internet access?

Also, trying to get the terms changed to say 8 hours a week rather than an hour a day would make this more feesible.

Are there any "chain" stores/pubs/hotels or eateries (mcdonalds? starbucks?) around within reasonable paid travelling distance with free wifi (I know you say he is rurally located)? Could get a drink and job hunt for an hour or so then go home.

Bogof_Babe

He's "almost 26" and his parents won't let him use the Internet? What a weird set-up.

Is it they won't let him use their computer, or they won't let him hook up to their Broadband (if there even is Broadband in such a remote area)? If they are on dial-up I can perhaps understand that they don't want him blocking the phone line for hours on end.

I find it odd that the Job Centre now expect everyone to have access to the Internet. There must be some folk for whom that genuinely isn't possible. Has he tried telling them that he can't, rather than won't, get online? I'd have thought there would be a contingency for people in this situation.