Around 3,000 Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) jobs may be at risk after it was revealed that the UK Government department planned to close offices around the UK.
Questioning the closures, SNP work and employment spokesman Chris Stephens asked: "Can the minister confirm that the announcement could mean 3,000 jobs at risk of redundancy in the Department of Work and Pensions? And what measures is he going to ensure that this does not happen?"
Stephens also stated that the DWP was "looking to close offices in high economic deprivation areas", which he claimed is "counter-intuitive to the so-called levelling-up agenda".
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Work and Pensions minister David Rutley responded: "In terms of our plans, we, as I said, have been working very closely with colleagues and with PCS over recent months.
"There are going to be around 12,000 colleagues who will be moving from one site to another in close proximity, around 28 sites involved there.
"In terms of colleagues that will be affected where there is no other strategic site nearby, there are around 1,300 colleagues that could be involved."
Continuing, Rutley stated that the UK Government will "see what opportunities there are within DWP" as well as other departments for impacted staff, before adding that the announcement "does not impact job centres and the customer-facing interactions".
As reported by the Daily Record, he stressed that the closures would "not affect front-of-house Jobcentre Plus" offices.
He added: "DWP has got too much estate. Recent calculations estimate that there's a capacity for 158,000 people, however the maximum headcount is forecast to be around 97,500 people.
"What we need to do is to make sure that we use that estate as effectively as possible for our colleagues but also for the taxpayer, and what we want to do is refocus the colleagues working in clusters so they can most effectively support customers and claimants, but also at the same time help improve and develop their own careers.
"The thing that's very important to highlight is that the front-of-house roles that we're fulfilling have increased significantly. We've taken forward the rapid estate expansion programme over the last two years, we've had 170 new Jobcentre Plus' being put into creation."
He continued: "These particular roles that we're talking about at the moment are back of house, and the equalities impact assessment has been made ... and in terms of the impact on communities, on the whole, these will be relatively small numbers of colleagues in a particular community that are involved, and what we want to do is to make sure that we support those people into work.
"For the vast majority there are jobs close by and we will help transition them into those areas, for those that aren't then we will give them the support that they need."
DWP offices closing with no alternative
As reported by Mirror Online, here is a list of offices in Scotland and across the UK that will be affected by the closures.
Scotland
- Aberdeen, Ebury House
- Kirkcaldy, Victoria Road
Rest of UK
- Barrow in Furness, Phoenix House
- Bishop Auckland, Vinovium House
- Blackburn, Cardwell Place
- Bury St Edmunds, St Andrews house
- Chippenham, St Pauls House
- Exeter, Clarendon House
- Gravesend, The Grove
- Milton Keynes, Southgate House
- Peterborough, Bridge Street
- Southampton, St Cross House
- Stoke-on-Trent, Hanley, Stafford Street
DWP office closing, alternative offered
Scotland
- Bathgate, Whitburn Road
- Dundee, Lindsay House
- Falkirk, Callendar Gate
- Glasgow, Clydebank, Radnor House
- Glasgow, Springburn
- Stirling, St Ninians Road
Rest of UK
- Birkenhead, Hordan House
- Bootle Redgrave Court
- Bradford, Leeds Road
- Burnley, Brun House
- Chesterfield
- Doncaster, Crossgate House
- Gloucester, Cedar House
- Liverpool, Belle Vale, Childwall Valley Road
- London Hackney, Sylvester Road
- London Stratford, Jubilee House
- Manchester Chorlton, Graeme House
- Nuneaton, Discovery House
- Oldham, Phoenix House
- Preston, the Guild Centre
- Rotherham, Dearne Valley, Discovery House
- Seaham, Lighthouse View
- Southend-on-Sea, Kingswood House
- St Helens, Gregson House
- Stockton-on-Tees, Tees Buildings
- Walsall, government buildings
- Warrington, Hilden House
- Washington, Durham House
- Wellingborough, Lothersdale House
Discussing the areas that would be impacted, Labour shadow business minister Justin Madders stated: “This is the opposite of levelling up, this is levelling down and it’s closing down.
“It looks as if the Department for Work and Pensions doesn’t believe in levelling up, it doesn’t believe in its own rhetoric on jobs, and it doesn’t believe in keeping people in work.
“We hear that offices are going to be closed in Stoke, in Southend, in Peterborough, in Chesterfield and Aberdeen, in Kirkcaldy, in Barrow, Bishop Auckland, Doncaster and Burnley, taking jobs out of these communities.”
He continued: “We’ve heard up to 12,000 jobs might be affected, but how many of those workers will be able to find new jobs locally within the department?” he said, also asking if the minister can guarantee there would be no compulsory redundancies.
“The PCS union has said that its members are facing spiralling workloads, so is it not the case that the department actually needs more staff, not less? If these closures are allowed to go ahead, we will be faced with the absurd prospect of making staff redundant in one area while recruiting new staff in another to do exactly the same job. That will be both costly and inefficient,” he said, asking the minister to confirm “that will not be allowed to happen”.
He added: “If these closures go ahead local communities will be faced with the loss of hundreds of good jobs potentially. Many of the closures are in areas of economic deprivation that can hardly afford to lose good quality public-sector jobs.”
