Report comment

Please fill in the form to report an unsuitable comment. Please state which comment is of concern and why. It will be sent to our moderator for review.

Comment

For those people who are not interpreters, let me illustrate an example. I was contacted by the Big Word a few weeks ago and asked to register since they needed my language combination in Sheffield. Prior to Capita taking over, I did hundreds of HMCTS jobs in Sheffield and I know the distance and travel time well. It is about 70 miles return and it takes me about 45 minutes each way. Let us consider the rates under the Big Word contract. For a standard job lasting one hour I would get £18 for interpreting but absolutely NOTHING for travel time because the Big Word does not pay travel time for the first 120 minutes return. As far as the mileage is concerned, I would get 20p for 50 miles as the first 20 miles return are not re-imbursed. That is a miserly £10, less than half the cost given by AA. Parking would cost me around £5. Even without taking the cost of running the car into consideration, I would earn £13 for 2 hours and 30 minutes (including travel). I have a PhD in English linguistics, two DPSIs and I am a fully qualified English teacher. Will I work for the Big Word rates? Am I stupid?

Your details

Cancel