Choose heating, eating or bus fare to Jobcentre
PARENTS face choosing between heating, eating, or the bus fare to the Jobcentre if closures are allowed to go ahead in Glasgow it has been warned.
The cost of travel to a jobcentre for many whose local office faces closure involves at least one in some cases two buses each way.
The cost of an all-day ticket is £4.50 the cheapest available for the journey.
One Parent Families Scotland told Scottish Government Employability Minister, Jamie Hepburn, the consequences of the extra cost.
Lee Anthony, OPFS Access Coordinator, said: “People will not get that money reimbursed. That £4.50 could be someone’s money for dinner that night.”
There are also fears that those who are required to sign on more than once a fortnight who will get the cash back will be left short for days.
The money is not paid back on the day and claimants have to wait until it’s paid into their bank account.
The Evening Times has looked at what £4.50 could be more usefully spent on by a parent.
Jobseekers Allowance for a person under 25 is £57.90 a week and for over 25s it rises to £73.10.
The bus fare could take almost 10% of a young jobseekers weekly cash and eat into the income of an older jobseekers money.
The significance of losing £4.50 as a result of jobcentre closures can be seen by comparing it to the cost of some of life’s necessities which parents must prioritise their cash on .
Using budget brands and cheap supermarket deals £4.50 far better spent on food than bus fare.
Based on the average cost of gas and electricity for an average two bedroom home it is more than a day’s heating and lighting.
It could also feed a parent and two children for a day and provide breakfast for several days.
Using another leading supermarket we calculated what food could be purchased.
It would buy one box of cereal, four pints of milk, two tins of chicken soup, one bag of 500g pasta, one tine of tuna, one tin of chopped tomatoes and one tin of peas.
It is also the cost of a pack of two white school shirts for boys from one supermarket and two journeys would buy a girls pinafore and white shirt.
Ms Anthony said: “The reality of this is stark when we look at child poverty. People are under huge stress and this is having an impact on mental health and on the whole family.”
Mr Hepburn was invited to meet people in Maryhill directly affected by the closures by local MP Patrick Grady and MSP Bob Doris.
He heard from Liseanne Birch a mother of three from Maryhill.
She said: “The travel will be a problem. In the holiday I would need to take the children with me on the bus to Springburn.”
Mr Hepburn said he would be writing to the UK Minister for Employment Damian Hinds this week and told of a previous meeting.
He said: “I suggested he should come to places like Maryhill but got no indication he would do so.
“There is no real understanding of the likely impact on the ground.”
Mr Doris said the plans should be stopped.
He said: “If this is a genuine consultation by the DWP Maryhill Jobcentre will be saved. The arguments are overwhelming.” THE controversial plan to close half of Glasgow’s Jobcentres is being heard at both Holyrood and Westminster parliaments today.
As opposition grows to the proposal which would see seven centres shut in the city and Cambuslang in South Lanarkshire, politicians and campaigners with be making their views known to the Department for Work and Pensions.
At Westminster the Scottish Affairs Committee is taking evidence on the impact the closures will have.
Damian Hinds, the Employment Minister, who has refused to come to Glasgow to meet the people who will be affected, will appear before the MPs and attempt to explain why the government wants to shut 50% in Glasgow but only 20% across the UK.
He has been officially invited by the city’s seven MPs and verbally invited personally by a number of of them in debates.
The Evening Times also invited Mr Hinds to come to the city to understand the strength of feeling and hear first hand the impact closures will have, but he is yet to respond.
He aslo did not respond to requests for an interview on the proposals.
Representatives from the Church of Scotland, Citizens Advice Bureau from Bridgeton, the Poverty Alliance and The PCS union, which represents staff will also outline their concerns to MPs.
Glasgow South SNP MP, Stewart McDonald, who has been campaigning to prevent the closure of two Jobcentres in his constituency, Castlemilk and Langside will also speak against the proposal.
At Holyrood MSPs will debate a Scottish Government motion on the closures.
The motion calls on the DWP to halt the closures, and the subsequent sites across Scotland to allow the Scottish Government to bring forward substantive co-location proposals to save these Jobcentres.