JSA and Job Offer

pmduk

Please ensure you have researched this company thoroughly, I've never heard of a reputable company asking new employees to pay their subsistence costs during training for later reimbursement. It's almost as though you're providing their venture capital.

PJQueen

Hi all,

Thanks for all your advice so far. I spoke to the job centre who have advised that if successful at interview they would be able to give upto a maximum of approx. £300 from the Advisor fund though it would have to be authorised from the manager and I would have to show proof of job offer and receipts for costs.

Obviously this is not the full amount so I need to figure out the rest. I’m in a bit of a rock and hard place with this job as I hear everyone’s concerns and I do have those concerns myself.

However, this was a job my advisor recommended I apply for, which I can’t refuse to do as far as I know and my advisor has said if I declined the interview it would be referred to a decision maker for ‘failure to take up an interview or job offer’ which can result in a sanction for up to 13 weeks.

Energize

[Deleted User] wrote:

Any chance of getting a 0% credit card? Then you could pay it off over the full term of the offer, which could be a year or more.

With no income? Even the most irresponsible lenders don't give out credit cards like that.

TELLIT01

Do a search for any information you can find on the company. If it isn't legit it's possible that other people have been caught before.

pmduk

PJQueen wrote: »

However, this was a job my advisor recommended I apply for, which I can!!!8217;t refuse to do as far as I know and my advisor has said if I declined the interview it would be referred to a decision maker for !!!8216;failure to take up an interview or job offer!!!8217; which can result in a sanction for up to 13 weeks.

I don't claim to be an expert, but such a sanction would surely be perverse in the extreme unless they're prepared to fund you fully to take up the employment.

PJQueen

pmduk wrote: »

I don't claim to be an expert, but such a sanction would surely be perverse in the extreme unless they're prepared to fund you fully to take up the employment.

I would totally agree. I read up on the CAB website that they can sanction for this reason but I might make an appointment with the CAB to see where I stand.

PJQueen

Just to update:


I declined the interview in the end, based on my worries about the company and the training not being paid for. I was referred for a sanction but this was declined by the DM. However, good news is I went for another interview and got the job.

Starting next week so due to sign off on Tuesday. Can’t come quick enough! Thanks for all the advice provided.

Rosemary7391

Energize wrote: »

With no income? Even the most irresponsible lenders don't give out credit cards like that.

I actually just got accepted for a 6 months 0% deal with basically no income, not even a job offer (I put in £100/year accounting for random casual work). Sub prime mind, but still!


I do think this potential employer was dodgy though. I really wonder what the training was, and why when OP raised the problem they didn't just book the hotel and travel themselves if they weren't comfortable giving a new employee an advance.

PasturesNew

PJQueen wrote: »

Just to update:


I declined the interview in the end, based on my worries about the company and the training not being paid for. I was referred for a sanction but this was declined by the DM. However, good news is I went for another interview and got the job.

Starting next week so due to sign off on Tuesday. Can’t come quick enough! Thanks for all the advice provided.

Well done.

To be honest... with the costs you'd have had to try to incur, plus the worry of that, a sanction without income might've made you "better off" if they'd upheld that notion. I'd have preferred a zero risk sit on the sofa with a sanction to the travel/cost and faffery of the course/tests and a sword of damacles hanging over my head whether I'd even "pass" at the end in any case. Passing would not be something you can achieve on merit/effort... but you might have found that everybody failed and they just do the "courses" as a rolling programme to reel in more suckers.

It's not easy for those with smaller incomes to ever get that "emergency fund" the wealthier assume everybody can pull together.

PJQueen

PasturesNew wrote: »

Well done.

To be honest... with the costs you'd have had to try to incur, plus the worry of that, a sanction without income might've made you "better off" if they'd upheld that notion. I'd have preferred a zero risk sit on the sofa with a sanction to the travel/cost and faffery of the course/tests and a sword of damacles hanging over my head whether I'd even "pass" at the end in any case. Passing would not be something you can achieve on merit/effort... but you might have found that everybody failed and they just do the "courses" as a rolling programme to reel in more suckers.

It's not easy for those with smaller incomes to ever get that "emergency fund" the wealthier assume everybody can pull together.

Thank you. I decided I would risk the sanction in the end than potentially lose hundreds of pounds I may never see again.

And I totally agree, having an ‘emergency fund’ buffer would be fantastic assuming you can afford to do that.

Luckily the DWP DM found the offer circumstances would be more than what should reasonably expected.

I was also lucky as I had two other interviews lined up which showed I wasn’t just declining employment for the sake of it.

My new job actually has a training course :eek: but fully funded travel, no upfront costs to me :j