Benefit staff could soon be queuing on the other side of the counter to claim the dole as the Government decides to close another 19 jobcentres and moves to make 350 staff compulsorily redundant.
The announcement by the Department of Work and Pensions – not featured in a press release – was slipped out last weekend and follows a “consultation” to close 22 centres. Only three –in central Edinburgh, Banff and in Merseyside – have been reprieved.
Offices in major cities including London, Manchester, Glasgow, and Cardiff are to close.
The full list is: London Heathrow, London Denmark Street, London Harrow Station Road, London Camberwell, Bluewater Recruitment centre, Chelmsford Beeches Road, Dundee Gellatly Street, Aberdeen Chapel St., Glasgow Shawlands, Glasgow City, Glasgow Hillington, Aylesbury Heron House, Manchester Airport, Manchester Trafford centre, Halifax Horton Street. Leicester Highfields and Caradog House Cardiff.
One rare campaign backed by Luciana Berger, Labour MP for Liverpool, Wavertree, was successful. She helped to stop the closure of the Old Swan centre in an area where unemployment is 23 per cent and there are 1,162 people using the office to find work. Less successful was Harriet Harman, who tried to save Camberwell, with a 2,000-strong petition. It is used by 2,000 claimants.
The announcement is on top of the 22 benefit processing offices from Arbroath to Exeter already earmarked for closure over the next year, where there are about 350 people who have not been found jobs.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “It is madness to close jobcentres when unemployment is rising just to save a few quid on the rent. These plans were made on the basis of the Government’s inaccurate economic forecasts. They must be shelved so that public employment services can be expanded to meet the challenge of the deepening jobs crisis.”
Jobcentre workers are campaigning against office closures and lobbied their MPs on Wednesday (November 2). Jobcentre Plus has slashed its workforce by more than 12,000 since January 2010 as ministers claimed unemployment would fall.
Meanwhile, unions in HM Revenue and Customs are facing another battle over privatisation and the loss of 10,000 jobs. Contracts are expected to be awarded in mid-November to two private sector suppliers to start handling tax credit inquiries –including having access to customer’s private finances and bank accounts. Some 200 private sector staff are expected to be located in two HMRC call centre sites answering tax credit calls for one year from next January. The PCS believes the move could pose a serious threat to customer security and could increase tax credit fraud.
The ministry is declining to release any details of the bidders who have until next Monday (November 7) to submit tenders. The PCS is balloting members to see if they will back a work to rule and walks outs.
