PCS: Benefit office closures `deeply flawed` as unemployment expected to rise

PCS: Benefit office closures `deeply flawed` as unemployment expected to rise

PCS: Benefit office closures `deeply flawed` as unemployment expected to rise

The decision by Jobcentre Plus to close one fifth of its benefit processing offices and call centres has been branded “deeply flawed and dangerous” by the Public and Commercial Services union.

The announcement today (13) that 17 benefit processing sites and five contact centres will be shut mostly within 12 months, with the loss of 2,400 jobs, comes at a time when hundreds of thousands public sector workers are expected to lose their jobs, with an anticipated similar knock-on effect in the private sector.

Jobcentre Plus has already cut more than 10,000 staff since 2009 and this latest decision will mean more delays in processing claims.

This comes as ministers are reviewing the jobcentre network as a whole and the union fears there is a risk they will decide to close more jobcentres, particularly in rural areas.

An Office for Budget Responsibility report prepared for the budget in March forecast unemployment will be higher throughout 2012 than it was at the beginning of this year.

Delegates to the union’s Department for Work and Pensions group conference – to be held on Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 May, before PCS’s annual conference which opens the following day – will debate an emergency motion to launch a campaign against the closures.

The first motion to be debated at PCS’s national conference calls for a national strike ballot over cuts to jobs, pay and pensions, and for the union to “work with other trade unions to co-ordinate the action for maximum impact”.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “This is a deeply flawed and dangerous plan that will remove vital support to jobseekers and people claiming welfare at precisely the time the government’s ideological cuts will throw more people out of work.

“Instead of cutting jobs, the government should be investing in public services like these to help get people back to work more quickly and help our economy to get back on track.”

ENDS

Notes

– The sites earmarked or closure are (benefit processing unless stated):

Arbroath
Ayr
Broadstairs
Caerphilly (contact centre)
Cannock
Carlisle
Castleford
Chester
Clydebank (contact centre)
Exeter
Grimsby Europark (contact centre)
Halifax
Hartlepool
Huyton, Merseyside
Lincoln
Liverpool John Moores (contact centre)
Luton
Mansfield
Preston (contact centre)
Sutton in Ashfield
Totton, Southampton
Yeovil

– For information, interview requests and media credentials for conference, contact PCS national press officer Richard Simcox on 020 7801 2747 or 07833 978216

– The Public and Commercial Services union represents civil and public servants in central government. It has more than 300,000 members in over 200 departments and agencies, and in parts of government transferred to the private sector. PCS is the UK’s sixth largest union and is affiliated to the TUC. The general secretary is Mark Serwotka and the president is Janice Godrich – on Twitter @janicegodrich

– Follow PCS on Twitter @pcs_union