to think my 21yo niece shouldn't be out of pocket for working at Olympics?

[piellabakewell]

She is at uni in south wales and lives there permanently now. She has volunteered to work at the Olympics because it will be a great opportunity to put her skills into practice (it's related to her degree, she graduates this year) and will look good on her CV. She has been assigned to the Aquatic Centre for 3 weeks. The Aquatic Centre is in London. She lives in Wales. She will have an allowance of £100 a week from which she has to pay for food, travel and lodging. Three of her friends are also working at the Olympics, but two of them have been assigned to Cardiff, which is very close to home. They all get the same allowance of £100 a week.

It's impossible to manage on £100 a week and she doesn't know anyone who lives near the site that she can stay with. She has asked to stay at my place, which is fine, although it will take her about 1.5 hours each way.

She is tempted to say that she cannot help after all, and who can blame her.

Well who do you expect to pay for her?

Aren't the tax payers paying enough for the Olympics?

If you want to volunteer then surely you think of costs & accommodation beforehand?

Also if she's doing it to look good on her cv then doesn't she see it as a worthwhile investment in the long term?

It's still ages away, can't she get an evening/weekend job for the next few months and save up some money to be able to stay in a youth hostel?

YABU... she should have thought of this before applying really..

If the local stuff was filled and she lost out, then thats life really...

It's like this with any "job" that is done primarily for the experience though and if your niece pulls out there will be loads of others ready and willing to replace her.

When my DS was at uni his job prospects would have been very much enhanced by an internship but the good ones were all in the City of London and the pay was just a small allowance for expenses. For us in the North the cost of accomodation, travel, etc was too much. They were all taken by young people who were wealthy or from the south-east.

It's not fair, life's a bitch but you just have to get on with it.

Bit harsh above. If nobody volunteered then the country would have to pay people to do it. For many (though not all) volunteering projects you would expect to give up your time for free but at least get your other expenses covered so it came out even.

Surely there must be some provision in London for this? Do the organisers not have any list of people willing to put someone up who is volunteering? Maybe she needs to be a bit more assertive to find out what possible options there are.

How much exactly did she imagine a "volunteer" would get? And why did she request the aquatic center without thinking about how she'd manage it?

YABU, there's not a shortage of volunteers, so there's no need for the olympics to pay people to come long distances to do it when locals would've.

She has volunteered? What did she really expect?

Volunteers are only just finding out their placements now. I am sure that she will have plenty of time, during her training and in the next couple of months to find out more and make some contacts and arrangements.

What a fab opportunity for her to gain some valuable experience and improve her CV.

If she's volunteering then she should have worked out how to afford to pay for accomodation and food. If she pulls out I'm sure there will be plenty of other people happy to take her place who can be bothered to think through the practicalities.

Actually I'm amazed that volunteers get £100 - there's going to 1000s of them.
When I volunteer for things I don't get anything at all because erm I'm a volunteer.

You obviously don't have much experience in volunteering!

I have volunteered a significant amount of my time for three charities, all of them cost me a small fortune. But I get back something that is priceless.

Your dn doesn't have to do it, I'm sure there will be plenty of other people that would like to be part of a once in a lifetime thing like the Olympics.

YABU. There will be plenty of volunteers. It will be a fantastic experience. Like Webwiz, I'm surprised that they are getting anything at all. i went to the Sydney Olympics and you couldn't move for the volunteers. They were great and everything moved smoothly because of them. they all had special uniforms and such like. And a parade. It must cost a fortune.

I think that the volunteer system is to get as many people involved as possible, rather than anything else.

Hello?? How much are the tickets for this?

She should be getting paid a wage. Friends who worked at other Olympics all found it a good experience AND were well paid.

I thought the Olympics were supposed to provide a jobs boost for the UK with its huge desperate unemployment rate.

YANBU

She should be getting paid a wage. Friends who worked at other Olympics all found it a good experience AND were well paid.
All Olympics have used a large volunteer force. Yes, organising committees have paid staff, but the volunteer programme has been part of Olympics for since 1980. London is not doing anything weird or unusual. Your friends may have been staff of the organising committees.

YABU. When you volunteer for things, most people don't expect to be paid at all. Thousands upon thousands of people volunteer for all sorts of things on a week in, week out basis up and down the country, and, if they ever sat down and considered what they paid out to be able to do that volunteering, they would all be £££ out of pocket. Most of them aren't doing it for their CVs either - just er, you know, volunteering.

Indeed, there are lots of things you can do where you actually pay to get your place, volunteering.

The registered charities for which I have volunteered were most insistant that I claim full expenses. It helped with their funding requests.

if she decides she cant help out cos of costs im sure there are plenty of others who could be happy to do it instead - so it's up to her. either do it or not but dont think she has much to moan about here

I must ask DD about this as she has been accepted as a volunteer. We assumed she would be given transport within London - must have been mentioned at some point to her. £100 per week would be really helpful as it will cost her a fair bit more than that I think.
As others have said though, there is not likely to be a shortage of volunteers and it's a great opportunity. Will look great on a CV.

What's unfair about the situation? She lives in Wales, she's applied to work at the London Olympics and now she's grizzling about the fact she's based in London and gets an allowance. This despite the fact that volunteering is usually means you'll get paid precisely nothing. She doesn't really deserve the opportunity, tbh.

Many smaller registered charities cannot afford to pay expenses. I'm sure there are some grants out there that ask that volunteers are paid expenses, but none of the ones we have looked into have that as a funding criteria.

The biggest charity I volunteered for asked people to claim their expenses and then donate it back so that they could claim gift aid on it.

So turn it down

Or realise it's an opportunity and make it work.

Hhhm, the Olympic committee or whatever they're called are on rather dodgy ground on this one. By paying £100 flat fee, irrespective of what the volunteers' actual expenses are, any employment lawyer worth their salt could construe it as a form of contract. And with an employment contract comes full employment rights (sick pay, holiday pay, severance pay etc) that "real" volunteers are not entitled to.

Good practice (indeed standard practice) in volunteering would be to reimburse ACTUAL expenses, up to a prearranged value.

Any unscrupulous Olympic volunteers might want to consider that, as might any members of the Olympic committee if they're reading.