Nine Jobcentres will shut under Tory plans to overhaul the Department for Work and Pensions estate.
The centres will merge into nearby DWP offices in an announcement slipped out to MPs before their summer break.
Officials insisted many of the new sites will be as little as 0.1miles from the existing offices.
But Sutton Coldfield Jobcentre will move its services 3.2 miles away, Wembley Jobcentre’s alternative will be 2.5 miles away no alternative has been given yet for Redhill Jobcentre.
The other Jobcentres to shut are Gravesend The Grove, Leeds Eastgate, Leicester New Walk, Oldham Phoenix House, Walsall Bayard House, and Wolverhampton.
A 10th site in Dalston, east London, that deals with national insurance numbers, will also shut.
The DWP said the Jobcentres shutting were “older and poorer”, adding: “This is not about reducing headcount or services offered, and we expect no jobs to be lost.”
It comes four years after scores of Jobcentres were closed and merged with others, and four months after the DWP announced plans to shut 41 back offices.
The number of work coaches is also being drastically scaled back after they were doubled during the pandemic.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jon Ashworth said: “Closing job centres and cutting jobs and support across the country has exposed the Tories’ rhetoric on levelling up to be utterly hollow.
“Ministers are cutting quality public sector jobs from communities who need them in the middle of a devastating cost-of-living crisis.”
It is part of a 10-year programme to “transition to an estate that is smaller, greener, and better”.
The shake-up will also see the DWP “co-locate with key partners and in some cases, secure new premises.”
Some temporary job centres that were opened after the pandemic - years after a wave of closures - could also be made permanent.
A DWP spokesperson said: “As part of our plans to improve our services and to help more people into employment, we are closing some poorer quality, older offices where there are better premises very close by that our services and staff can easily move to, so jobseekers receive our help in an upgraded, more modern environment.
“It’s expected affected colleagues will move to other nearby offices.”
Full list of closures provided by DWP
- Gravesend (The Grove) Jobcentre; The new site is 0.3 miles from the existing Grove office
- Leeds (Eastgate) Jobcentre; The new site is 0.9 miles from the existing Eastgate office
- Leicester (New Walk) Jobcentre; The new site is only 0.1 miles from the existing New Walk office.
- London Dalston; This is a NINO site. Services relocated across London and customers can apply online
- Oldham (Phoenix House) Jobcentre; Site 0.2 miles away
- Redhill Jobcentre; We’re not in a position to give the new site publicly yet
- Sutton Coldfield Jobcentre; The new site is 3.2 miles from the existing site and 17 minutes by public transport
- Walsall, Bayard House; New sites are 0.6 miles and 0.2 miles away
- Wembley Jobcentre; New site 2.5 miles away
- Wolverhampton Jobcentre; The new site is only 0.2 miles from the existing Chapel Court office.
