Posted here because posterous are encountering technical problems.

Most of my jobseeking rants can also be found on linkedin:

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/rarblaster

Connect to me if you wish and have a look at some of the groups I’m a member of. My biggest rant as is most unemployed people’s are is the way the JCP (Job Centre Plus) operates.

The way I read the TIS scheme (Travel to Interview Scheme) works is:

1. The company that has invited you for an interview has to be further than 1 hours travelling distance. Meetings with an RA (Recruitment Agency) don’t count.

2. You have to provide proof (most cases it’ll be an email or letter) before the date of interview, if however you have a last minute interview, you chance it and go to the interview with the slim hope you are going to get your travel costs re-imbursed.

Going back to point no 1. How the JCP define what is 1 hours travelling distance?

Does that include the time walking from home to the train station/bus stop, then waiting for the train or bus to arrive, or is it actual time spent on public transport?

Travelling by car is simple, it’s the time you put the pedal to the metal.

So you don’t qualify under the TIS and bus and train is your only hope. It’s still going to cost you at least £4 on either mode of public transport, so you have interviews on different days of the week, you buy yourself a 10 journey ticket or a weeks pass, you’re still going to be out of pocket by at least £10.

What if you live further than walking distance to a bus stop or train station and there is no one to take you. It’s taxi time and we all know how expensive they can be.

So do the maths out of the £65.45 you receive per week on JSA (Job Seekers Allowance), how much are you going to have left to live on?

Is it our fault that some less than scrupulous individuals have abused the TIS system? So now under budget cuts those of us genuinely looking for work are going to have to sit at home because we cannot afford to get to interviews?

Solution a paid work placement, so I could turn up to a place on Monday Morning guaranteed that I’m going to get paid the following week without having to travel to an interview which can be a lottery and coming back empty handed after putting £10 worth of fuel in my car, thus nothing to show for it.

What do you prefer, public transport or driving?

Just lately I prefer to catch the train, don’t get me wrong I love driving. It’s just that I find sitting on a train with my eyes closed very relaxing, it puts you in the right frame of mind for the day ahead.

I would never dream of driving into the middle of Birmingham. Then you have to find a place to park, find enough change to put in the parking meter. In the end it can work out cheaper.

When I find gainful employment, I will definitely be driving. Less time to walk from the station to your destination.