Jobcentres across the country are shutting as part of a Government shake-up. The Department for Work and Pensions has issued a list of sites that will close in a move it says will aid efforts to "improve services and help more people into employment".
Nine Jobcentres will shut in total, along with a 10th site that deals with national insurance numbers. According to an announcement made to MPs, the centres will merge into nearby DWP offices, The Mirror reports.
The DWP has emphasised that many of the new locations will be as little as 0.1 miles from the existing offices. But Sutton Coldfield Jobcentre's services are moving over three miles away, and Wembley's alternative will be 2.5 miles away.
Gravesend The Grove, Leeds Eastgate, Leicester New Walk, Oldham Phoenix House, Walsall Bayard House and Wolverhampton are the other Jobcentres that are shutting. The national insurance site is in Dalston, east London.
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.”
In March the DWP announced wider plans to shut 41 back offices, affecting thousands of staff. Labour's 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.”
Full list of Jobcentre closures and where they are moving to
- 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 0.1 miles from the existing New Walk office.
- London Dalston; A NINO (national insurance number) site. Services relocated across London and customers can apply online
- Oldham (Phoenix House) Jobcentre; Site 0.2 miles away
- Redhill Jobcentre; DWP is "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 0.2 miles from the existing Chapel Court office.
