A question about : Unpaid internship
I've been so emotional today, it's unbelievable. It's partly why I tried to seek some help and find out why the system is constantly trying to !!!! my life up.
I've been on JSA for a month now and I've tried and tried to find a job. (I live in London) I was offered to do a training course by the Job Centre in retail, which I wasn't interested in. But I went in for the first couple of days (After completing a basic numeracy and literacy test; I passed) and did not like the course one bit, and thought I was wasting my time. I told the Job Centre I didn't like it, and instead found an alternative. It's an unpaid internship with a large marketing company in central London, which I have been learning a lot from and I've generally enjoyed the people there and the work. I actually just completed my first week there today. I love the people, environment and it's possibly something that I can do in the future or if they offer me a job, then I could do it in the near-future. (We can dream, can't we?)
However, today, I had to sign on. This is where it gets agonizing for me.
It gets agonizing because my unpaid internship are reimbursing me for my travel to and from work via underground. [I pay for the travel first, then they reimburse me for that] However, the Job Centre are saying that I'll have to declare that as outside income. (Even though I'm working for FREE [9:30 - 5:30 every weekday]) They will deduct this amount from my benefits. As you may or may not know, weekly tickets for the underground from ZONE 1 to ZONE 3 cost Ј35 per week. I only get paid Ј56 per week by the Job Centre, which only leaves me with Ј21 to live on. Thus making this internship an impossibility. They don't realise I need to eat; and Ј21s in London is NOTHING, absolutely nothing to live on in LONDON per week.
I'm getting really good experience working at this fairly large company and they would rather I do a retail !!!!ing course and are willing to pay the travel for that. 
I also agreed that I would continue looking for jobs (i.e. As per the Job Centre policy) and if any one phoned me for an interview, I would take a day out to go to that interview. I said I would also continue to sign on, as required. But then they said that they would take money away from me because the company I'm interning at is willing to !!!!ing pay for my travels. I was absolutely infuriated and demanded to speak to a manager, to which of whom was not there.
I feel so bitter and so disgusted at the fact they are leaving me with essentially, NOTHING.
My mobile bill is Ј10 per month, my food is whatever I should need to eat, shower gel, washing up powder. My god...... I will not have much to live on at-all.
I guess my question is, what can I do? At the moment, the plan is just to rough it out, as I do believe my internship is giving me invaluable knowledge, even if they are taking advantage of free-work. Today, they actually made me feel like topping myself. I guess that's it for now...
Best answers:
- Can't you get an evening job and why do you need to pay Ј10 a week for a mobile phone. You can get a sim with free calls/texts for less than Ј10 per month. You could even get a contract phone for Ј7.50 a month.
How long is your work experience for? - I wonder if this would work? As the job centre are being silly about money changing hands could the company not give you any - but give you the travel card instead? Maybe someone there would pay for it and be refunded.
- Is it possible to speak to someone else at the job centre? A manger maybe?
When I did some volunteer work the JC wouldn't pay travel, they said it was up to the company I was with, but at no point did they say they would have taken any money off my benefits because they're just reimbursing me. It's not earnings.
If it were me I'd talk to someone else and explain the situation and see what they say. - I understood that people on JSA were allowed to earn up to twenty pounds a week before anything earned was deducted from their benefit. Check this out carefully. And if you were to travel to/from work by bus using an Oyster card, the amounts involved would be lower, making things a bit more manageable.
Your other option would be to ask your personal adviser to arrange some kind of unpaid work experience at the company where you have your internship. If they arrange it for you then they pay travel expenses. - I agree with Voyager2002 about asking your personal advisor if they can arrange with the company for it to be a work experience placement agreed by Jobcentre Plus.
As you describe it at the moment, it looks like they are considering that the work you are doing is work that the company would normally have to pay someone to do, hence it not being voluntary work by their own definition, for which you would be allowed travel expenses.
If you can get it changed to work experience agreed by your PA, you should be ok.
I think the earnings disregard for a single person claiming JSA and without any of the exceptions, eg a disability premium, is only Ј5 per week.
I wish you luck and hope you can get it sorted out so that you can continue - it just seems so unfair that you're being penalised for doing something to improve your job prospects.
Edit - sorry, we must have cross posted - I now see that the work experience idea probably won't work for you. - I can sense your frustration through your posts, you must feel gutted just now. I think it's still worth speaking to either your PA or a manager if you can get hold of them and put across what you've put across so passionately here to see if there is something that can be done.
Failing that, if it were me, I'd be very tempted to get in touch with my MP to highlight the situation. - Why did you tell them in the first place about getting travel costs reinbursed? When I've done voluntary work before the jobcentre have never asked me anything about this.
The company that are paying you nothing to work everyday are in effect totally exploiting you.It wont lead to a job with them as why would they pay when they can get you or some other unemployed person for free?.
I'm sorry to hear of this, could you do any free courses instead? or some very part time voluntary work for a few hours per week where they provide proper accredited training? Then at least you would be able to concentrate on applying for jobs at the same time and you would'nt be getting taken for a ride.
- 224 reads