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Hence, Zuzana why I chose to touch on travel expenses; only one aspect of the MoJ and TheBigWord business model! I am personally privy to Interpreters who have in the past fraudulently claimed travel expenses and have been prosecuted or removed from the HMCTS database.
The offence was not that elaborate! Interpreters had travelled by car, but had claimed public transport cost. In the past this was an offence and clearly marked as fraud. At present this fraud has been legitimised and actively encouraged by both the MoJ and TheBigWord??? Unbelievable but TRUE!
Although, the majority of Interpreters travel by public transport for the vast majority of the assignments that they undertake, travel time and cost is calculated "...as though you were travelling by car". Mileage being paid at 20p per mile. This just about covers the fuel costs. What of the Motor Insurance and other motor related expenses? Is it viable? NO.
I don't wish to create a North - South division, but the broad brush business model adopted by the MoJ and inherited by TheBigWord fails to make any consideration of parking costs and peak hour rail fares, travel disruptions, bottlenecks. We could sympathise with call centre operatives in Poland under Capita-Ti, but would think that most people in Leeds would understand that only insane would drive into London at Morning Peakhour and pay parking costs of £4.00ph.
Hence 95% of the time, 95% of the assignments on offer are not financially viable. Oh the ingenious 'terms' that TheBigWord comes up with " A £60.00 overnight contribution for journeys of 100 miles " but still refuse to recognise that this is in fact in plain English 'travel time'. However acceptance of this would mean that that they are in fact having to pay additional travel time.
Another interesting word is 'Actual'. When it comes to paying for time spent in attendance it is defined as 'Actual' but seem not to understand the word 'Actual' when it come to 'Actual time spent travelling'.
I find it baffling that any sane person would travel 3 hours each way spend £60.00 on overnight accommodation and earn £24-48 for the actual Interpreting when 8 of 10 assignments the actual travel expenses needs to be subsidised by the interpreting fees. It is a dead profession. However, just like Zuzana says that there are different sources of income!!! Interestingly, it is the prosecuting agencies which are ready to pay after a particular job has been botched up or a prosecutor returns from a case management hearing and asks for the work to be reviewed. More often than not, a recent trend by the Metropolitan Police who introduce surveillance recordings that cannot be relied upon. And when they do produce the 'expert' to perhaps come an give live evidence, the expert is not sure whether they are an expert at all? So much for the cost -cutting initiatives!!!