§ Mr. BeggsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will seek to amend existing legislation and regulations to enable job applicants in Northern Ireland who have been short listed for a second interview, after an initial interview, to claim travelling expenses for the purpose of attending a second interview.
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§ Mr. AtkinsResponsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Training and Employment Agency under its chief executive, Mr. J. S. Crozier. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from J. S. Crozier to Mr. Roy Beggs, dated 25 May 1993:
You recently asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will seek to amend existing legislation and regulations to enable job applicants in Northern Ireland who have been shortlisted for a second interview, after an initial interview, to claim travelling expenses for the purpose of attending a second interview. The Secretary of State has passed your question to me, as Chief Executive of the Training and Employment Agency, for reply.The programme which relates to your enquiry is the Travel to Interview Scheme. This is essentially a small scheme with limited resources and it is therefore not possible to help at every stage of a selection procedure. Where an employer needs to see a jobseeker on more than one occasion the employer might be expected to help meet the cost if the jobseeker cannot do so. By conserving our resources for providing help to attend the first interview more applications can he accepted and more jobseekers helped to find employment.However the scheme is currently under review and the eligibility conditions are being examined to see whether, within the limited resources that are available, there are ways of helping more people more effectively.