I’ve been on universal credit for a couple of months now, with lots of interviews lined up, some at second stage. But I’ve had no choice but to ask for help from the jobcentre to attend the interviews as I am flat broke and my car is off the road.
The jobcentre offers something called a flexible support fund to assist people with attending interviews. The first time I used it, the money went straight in. The second time, I provided the proof, the email invite to the interview and a request for £8.70 (I told you times are hard!) My advisor, who has previously been rather uninspiring but done what he needed to, told me that it was approved.
The money didn’t arrive. At 9 in the morning on the day of the interview (a second interview for a well paying job) I messaged asking again. I also called and was told a message was sent to him. He replied at 4.50pm saying just that the payment had been approved. 5 hours AFTER the interview was meant to take place.
I was unable to attend the interview and I missed out on a great opportunity, despite doing everything that I could to try and raise the pitiful amount of money that I needed. It would have been a four hour walk there and back which wasn’t possible. I sent countless journal messages – ee below, the interview was on the 22nd Jan at midday.
|22 Jan 2026 at 5:37pm|It did not come to my bank though, are you even reading my messages? I missed this second interview today because of this.||
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|22 Jan 2026 at 4:50pm|Hello Katherine, FSF payment of £8.70 had already been approved to support you with your interview. Regards Send reply ||
|22 Jan 2026 at 12:28pm|Can anyone explain to me why this happened||
|22 Jan 2026 at 10:09am|Since noone has got back to me and I have no way of getting to my interview I am going to have to let them know I am not able to attend.||
|22 Jan 2026 at 8:29am|URGENT FAO CASE MANAGER This money has not arrived and the interview is at 12pm. It’s a second interview and I really don’t understand why you’ve done this to me. Getting a job is hard enough without the job centre making it harder. If you weren’t going to arrange the money you shouldn’t have said it, what am I meant to do? I have no way of getting there.|
Am I justified in being angry and upset that my advisor clearly isn’t reading my messages and has no interest in helping me get a job? This has really knocked my confidence in applying for roles that are outside of walking distance (realistically 1hr each way) and generally affected my mindset as I feel like I missed a really good opportunity for the sake of £8.70.
Go to your local CAB. Show and tell them all you’ve said here.
Have them help you to get another jobcentre member of staff to work your case.
That way there is a log of what happens if this comes back to bite you (not attending interview) and knowing CAB jave an eye on the ball makes these changes go much smoother.
Good luck with your search too
INFO: Just wanted to clarify – you followed the correct procedure on getting help from the flexible support fund, in the expected time frame?
If you did exactly what you were supposed to, when you were supposed to, and everything was submitted in the right way with as much notice as you require, obviously you’re not TA, but calling your advisor useless and accusing them of sabotage will NOT help your case. When you go in with words like that, you’ll get everyone’s back up and make them less inclined to help you or change your case manager. Being demanding and abusive gets you nowhere. What happened is a problem, and it’s something that needs to not happen again, but if you go in raging, even if you get a new caseworker, you’ll be poisoning that new relationship before your first interaction. Be calm, be collected, and keep a lid on your temper.
”I’m deeply frustrated and I would like a new caseworker. I feel that my current caseworker’s delay cost me a good job. I needed flexible support money to get to my interview on (interview date). I submitted the interview invitation and request for funding on (whatever date you did). I called and messaged several times leading up to the interview, including (however many times) in the hours before my interview. The funding was not put through until several hours after the interview, which meant I had no way to get there. This was a second interview for a well-paid position that I was a good candidate for. I would like to have my case reassigned so this does not happen again.”
I applied for the funds the previous Wednesday, as I was advised to by another job centre member and followed the exact procedure, even sending screenshot of the page from the bus company stating the price. He told me that this was approved and confirmed this at 4.13pm the day before:
|21 Jan 2026 at 4:13pm|Hi Katherine, Thank you for your message. An FSF payment of £8.70 has been approved to support you with your interview. If you have a health condition, please ensure you report this on your Universal Credit account and obtain a fit note from your GP so we can provide the appropriate support. Regards Show more(visual only)Send reply |
|:-|:-|
|21 Jan 2026 at 2:19pm|this hasn’t come. this is causing me a large amount of anxiety.|
|20 Jan 2026 at 4:30pm|Hi Katherine, Thanks for your message. We are currently processing your request. Please note that we will request for the Bus ticket receipt of £8.70 as stated in your request. Regards Send reply |
|20 Jan 2026 at 2:20pm|I have done this. Is it possible to let me know as soon as possible whether you will be able to help as this is causing me a lot of anxiety and worry.|
|20 Jan 2026 at 10:06am|Upload information to support your Universal Credit claim completed|
I was unable to write below my table for some reason, but I wanted to add, you are completely an utterly correct especially about poisoning the future relationship with a potential new advisor. I don’t want to do that.. I think I have been so upset about it that I’ve thrown my usual courtesy aside and you are right, I don’t want to be rude as I am aware they are very busy, under pressure and that being aggressive won’t help. What you have written is perfect and I am going to do a slight rewrite and add to my journal.
I do think one more thing that could be helpful is clarifying a) how far in advance are you supposed to be making the request for interview travel funds, b) what approval timeline is, and c) if there is something you should do if the money has not been sent by the morning of the interview.
If their turn-around time for these funds is, say, 3 days, you need to know that so you schedule your interviews far enough out to get funding through in time.
I completely agree and this has really helped, thank you.
I think I might be being the asshole in the context of I find it hard mentally to jump through hoops for 8.70 which is more to do with the frustration of having a more drawn out job hunt than I really expected. I need to get over that mindset because that’s a bit assholey. Thank you ever so much for your advice.
It is a nuisance to be dealing with, but one that is nobody’s fault, I think. They want to make sure they’re handing out money to real job seeking, which means somebody has to check it, checking it takes time, etc.
Or rather, I suppose the fault lies with people who have lied about why they‘re asking for money in the past, which created the need for a system in the first place, even though the system is a nuisance to everyone involved. If we could trust the honor system, there are a whole lot of things in life that would be made simpler, but people are people.
You did everything right proof sent, notice given, constant follow-ups. The failure here isn’t yours.
Thank you. I really needed to hear this as I think JC are inclined to act like they are doing you a favour by existing, but I’m aware that through the lens of my own frustration at being out of work I might be projecting.
I don’t think your case manager is trying to screw you over. I think they are really busy and that you are one of many clients. The first message you sent on the day of the interview (at 8:29) was needlessly hostile. A better message would have informed him that the money hadn’t arrived, explained how urgent it was and asked for help because you were trying as hard as you could to get work and this was a second interview so a solid chance but you would miss it without the transfer. Your message accused him of deliberately trying to harm your chances and deliberately lying to you about giving you the money. Imagine for one moment being an overworked, underpaid case worker who gets a message notifying them about something that’s gone wrong. Would you be more likely to pull out all the stops, maybe leave a meeting, to help someone who alerts you to the mistake and appeals for help or someone who accused you of being a dishonest sabateur? Just FYI any customer facing job is going to require people skills,.you should consider developing some.
I mean you are absolutely not wrong. In that case I guess I am the asshole.
I do have people skills, but I let this get to me because it’s been so frustrating but that’s not an excuse I know they work very hard to help many more people than they have the time and resources for and I am not proud of how I dealt with this (hence posting here!)
We can only strive to improve though right 🙂
NTA, possibly even NAH because it’s really hard to know how much actual control job center staff have vs just being the messenger.
I will strongly suggest if you find yourself in a similar situation ask the employer to reschedule, or if they can do a telephone/virtual interview. Depending on the nature of the role many employers will help you expense travel costs to interview, that of course, does rely on you having access to the literal cash to pay for tickets (but if you can push some things around knowing that the money will be returned to you might help in those circumstances). Even beyond that a good employer isn’t going to care that you’re in financial difficulty most of the time and will work with you. It looks good for HR to be seen by internal managers as helpful in lining up interviews.
I’ve got two new interviews lined up that are better money and money coming tomorrow so. I’ll go in tomorrow and face it and apologise for my tone in the journal. Thanks for your help.