JSA people should get bus passes and winter fuel allowances

[fecklessswonder]

just had to lend bil money for heating and travel as he's on JSA after loosing his job due to mental health issues and his savings have dried up after almost a year.

He thinks that many weeks he spends more on travel than JSA pay! Thank god he has a family who can help him, I feel very sorry for people that don't have someone to help out.

I agree! Iv been on jsa before i was signed onto esa and iv had to keep paying £55 a month for a bus pass (well more now its gone up this yr) bus fare was just too much, signing on, col course, job interviews, then doc app, hosp app, physio it just wasn't worth getting rid of the bus pass! It would cost me more in tickets!!£55 a month is a huge chunk of the £240 i get a month though ?? when im finally well enough ill still have to keep the sodding pass as they're making people go the job center every week so that's £5 everytime ??
Not everybody wants to be on jsa or esa and when you're only getting £240 a month public transport takes a lot out. By time iv paid all bills off i have about £15 left for the month.

make it affordable

On another forum I'm on there is automated moderation, so any swear word posted is automatically replaced with something politer. Perhaps to promote intellectual honesty MN could implement something similar, so that every time the above phrase is posted it is replaced with "make taxpayers subsidise it."

Not really a problem that though, is it Theoretician

I'm in Scotland and have a mental illness. I don't receive any benefits but get a bus pass which allows me to travel free throughout the country. Not sure about england but definitely worth looking into.

Sorry, who are you quoting there, Theoretician?

When I was employed I would have happily supported a small rise in my tax or NI to meet the cost of providing additional help with fuel costs, for people with disabilities or terminally ill. (Unfortunately and somewhat ironically I now fall into this category myself). Of course I feel it would be better if those millionaires lost their WFA to pay for people who genuinely need it.

I fully support taxpayers subsidising benefits like hospitals and the NHS, schools, transport, disability benefits, policing etc. Do you?

I am a tax payer - I have no objection to supporting bus passes or warm homes for people

YANBU.

JSA is so low that it sickens me. I can't believe there isn't more help. One of my best friends had to survive on JSA alone (no HB or anything as she owned her house before losing her job) for 2 years. It was about £70 a week. She ended up suicidal and, if her parents hadn't been able to help her out occasionally, I don't know how on earth she would have managed.

Pensioners, disabled people, single parents etc - probably many of all of those groups struggle hugely. But they are so much better off (financially) than those on JSA.

(unless the person on JSA has children? I'm guessing they get more then? But I don't imagine the majority of those on JSA do have children).

Completely agree.Back in the 1970's when the labour controlled West Midlands was run by (almost) socialists,people in receipt of the then UB40 or unemployment benefit not only had free or heavily subsidised public transport but were given a ' Passport to Leisure ' which gave them free entry to all sports facilities ie.swimming and gymn.

I'd rather see help for transport costs go to people on minimum wage. My husband's wages are eaten up by simply getting to work and obviously that's day in, day out. Meanwhile his employers profit from getting away with employing people on minimum wage who are doing a job where they used to get paid maybe double that.

If you have to sign on it's what? Once a week? Once a fortnight? Bike. Years ago when we signed on, we cycled or walked - it was the other end of the city where we lived. But we had all day with nothing else to do, right? But work - my husband's job is about 20 miles away and he can't cycle it. (He could have when he was younger).

We spend out around £100 a month on school dinners for our kids/pack up - my unemployed neighbours (whose benefits are probably more than minimum wage given the huge expensive car they run) will get their kids lunches free. Again, extend that to people on minimum wage. It is unfair that people on benefits get that and those working - sometimes for less money - don't.

maras, I lived in the West Mids in the early 80s and was unemployed from 1983-1988. We did indeed get a 'Passport To Leisure' which we used daily for free swimming at the local pool as did many of my unemployed mates. But we most definitely did not get a penny towards travel. I paid for my WUMPTY card from my dole, or I walked or I cycled. Most often, the latter. Maybe in the 70s you got free travel but you definitely didn't by the 80s. Quite often when we went swimming in the morning, there'd only be one or two other people there. So at least it meant those facilities got used.

If yo're on JSA you can ask your advisor to give you a concessionary bus pass . You get a big reduction on bus/train fares and it is provided to help you with transport to get to interviews etc. you'll need to take along some passport pictures and it lasts for three months, at which point you can renew it.

they never tell you this in the jobcentre the cheeky shites.

Thank you for this thread. My sister is in her early 60's on jsa with mild learning difficulties. She is crippled by fares to job centre and interviews. She used
to walk but since they closed the local job centre this is impossible. Realistically it is going to be hard for her to find work despite working for 35 or so years previously. telling someone to cycle is pretty useless if the don't have a bike and can't afford to buy one or maintain one. The warm front scheme is worth looking into and the concessionary pass.
I do however, believe that single people on jsa are the most vulnurable group. An example in her area. She gets 71 per week but has to pay £5 council tax and £6 each forknight to sign on plus additional fares to job search and attend interviews. A single parent with 2 dc under 5 pays no council tax and doesn't have to pay fares to attend job centre and job search daily. Yet they take home some £160 more perweek. Sorry but 2 small children do not cost that much to feed, clothe and the additional heating etc.

joffrey If I remember correctly the free/subsidised transport only lasted for one or two years in the mid 1970's.There was then a change of WMids.council leaders as the Thatcher years ensued.

Yanbu.

I used to live 10 miles from the JC, I used to sign on by post. I don't know if they still do this?

Dawndonnaagain
Ha! if only it was so easy as going to your GP and getting 'signed off' for 6 months.

I do think those on JSA should get free travel passes. Not being able to afford to travel is a big barrier to work. When you have £70 a week you simply can't afford to be spending £8 on bus journeys regularly.

• forever I have a dh and children with disabilities, I was suggesting a starting point. I know it's shit!

It's a bit like cold weather payments and dla. When we got IS and dcs dla we got the cold weather payments, now, being off IS but dcs still on dla we don't get them (despite actually having less money now) and it does make a difference.

My local JC switched to online signing on about a year ago- if they all do this then hopefully this won't be such a problem anymore.

Obviously you'd have to have internet access though. But most people can afford that, with a dongle or use library, cheap Internet cafe etc.,

I personally found JSA to be sufficient but then I live in a city.

My main problem was LHA/HB for under 35s.

Ah maras, thanks for clarifying. In the 70s I was still at school and in Yorkshire but we had various socialist utopias around that had very cheap bus fares anyway. ;o) I think once the bus companies and trains were privatised, it all got horrendously expensive. Which is mysterious as I swear Thatcher claimed with competition, it would be cheaper!

You could use that argument for the very low paid as well. I think the age should be raised to 75. But it shouldn't be means tested.

JSA is pitifully low, and it should absolutely be more. I think it should be calculated based on how much a person has contributed, but also the wage they were earning before they got made redundant should be taken into account.

I'm not sure that I agree with free bus passes, but travel to and from the JC and interviews should be paid for.

Well, I'm on JSA since I lost my job... I'd love to get the allowances /bus pass but I wouldn't expect it. It does make me try harder to get a job although the competition is ridiculous for even the crappiest jobs. Having not been out of work properly for about 20 yrs I got a bit of a shock re the amount of people who apply... as job sites will often tell you how many applications there have been.
Can't afford to get boiler fixed so am making do with open fire when can afford, and blowy heater. I live in the middle of nowhere, it's really cold ,got to say though, one thing I have noticed is that I haven't had a headache since having no central heating! that at least is a bonus, in some ways it's probably healthier, doesnt feel like it though.. i have thyroid problems and my hands and feet are permanently cold even in summer.. as i write this, i'm totally numb

I keep blowing hair dryer down my clothes to warm up