Jobcentre Plus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jobcentre Plus (Welsh: Canolfan Byd Gwaith), sometimes written JobCentre Plus or abbreviated to JCP, is the government-funded employment agency facility and the social security office in the United Kingdom, often operated from a high street shop. The agency was formerly titled the Employment Service, which operated Jobcentres and existed alongside separate social security benefits offices, until their merger and re-branding as Jobcentre Plus in 2002. It is an executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and reports directly to the Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform. The current Minister is Jim Murphy MP. The Chief Executive of the agency is Lesley Strathie.
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[edit] Role of Jobcentre Plus
Jobcentre Plus typically provides resources to enable the unemployed find work, including posting vacant job listings using a computer system called LMS (Labour Market System) which can be accessed by customers through Jobpoints (touch-screen computer terminals) and via the Jobcentre Plus website, as well as providing jobsearch help and information about training opportunities for those who have been registered as unemployed for some time. Part of the organisation is engaged in administering claims for benefits such as Jobseeker's Allowance.
[edit] History
The forerunners of the Jobcentre Plus were the government-run Employment Exchanges, originally the vision of Winston Churchill, President of the Board of Trade and William Beveridge, who had worked for a more efficient labour system in the early years of the 20th century. This was intended to address the chaos of the labour market and the problems of casual employment.
In 1908 Beveridge was commisssioned to devise a scheme which would combine labour exchanges with a new government-funded unemployment benefit. The Labour Exchanges Bill was rushed through Parliament and passed in September 1909 and, after months of planning and recruitment of clerks, 62 Labour Exchanges were opened on February 1, 1910. The number of offices rose to 430 within four years. In 1916 these were renamed as Employment Exchanges, so as to more accurately reflect their purpose and function.
The National Insurance Act was passed in 1911 and the first payments were made at Exchanges in January 1913. Initially this covered only elected trades, such as building, engineering and shipbuilding. Weekly contributions were paid by workers, employers and the State in the form of stamps which were affixed to an Unemployment Book (later called the National Insurance card). When no work was available, benefit was payable.
The basic rules and administration regarding claims and the disallowance of benefit remain unaltered today. From 1918, payments were also made to unemployed ex-soldiers and their dependants, as well as to civilians who found themselves unemployed due to the decline of war production industries. The out-of-work donation scheme (the original "Dole") was originally only a temporary measure.
At the suggestion of Prime Minister David Lloyd-George, from January 1917 the exchanges came under a new Department of State, the Ministry of Labour, and the Labour Exchanges Division was renamed the Employment Department.
[edit] Changes to the service
Recent major cuts to Civil Service staffing levels mean that Jobcentre Plus is no longer able to provide help to jobseekers of all categories as it traditionally has done, eg, those who are already employed or those who are unemployed but not claiming any benefits. Staff of the Department for Work and Pensions have been instructed to give help only to those in so-called "high priority groups", ie, those who are long-term claimants of Jobseekers Allowance, lone parents or those receiving other benefits such as Income Support or Incapacity Benefit.
Alongside these changes, Jobcentre Plus is changing the way in which claims to benefits are processed. In the past, claimants were asked to complete forms and booked an interview with an adviser in order to submit them for processing. The new system involves individuals wishing to claim initally phoning a Jobcentre Plus contact centre. Customers claiming certain benefits will still need a "Work Focused Interview", which will be arranged at their local Jobcentre Plus office.
Emphasis is now placed upon jobseekers performing their own search for work, using the interactive jobpoints in local offices, using the facilities of the Jobcentre Plus site [1] or the Government portal Direct.Gov [2], making contact through a call centre called Jobseeker Direct (0845 60 60 234) or through interactive TV. The limited resources of the agency are now focused on those who are "hardest to help".
[edit] Work assist
Work assist is part of the The New Deal for Disabled People programme, covering the whole of the West Midlands, and which is entirely voluntary and available to anyone on a sickness related benefit. Participation does not affect your benefit entitlement, nor prompt the Social Security to refer the demander for a medical review.
[edit] Recent controversy
Together with the drastic cuts to staffing levels, these major changes are the subject of much internal controversy within the department and are being opposed by the trades unions representing staff, such as the Public and Commercial Services Union, whose members (as at January 2006) have been balloted and have voted in favour of strike action.
In September 2005, a memo leaked to the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), who represent a minority of employees led by Mark Serwotka, revealed alleged plans to privatise Jobcentre Plus, although this was denied by the then Work and Pensions Secretary, David Blunkett. Since then it has emerged that DWP Minister of State Margaret Hodge and high-level civil servants are conducting a feasibility study to consider the outsourcing of some Jobcentre work.
In March 2006, Minister of State Margaret Hodge and Jobcentre Plus management were severely criticised by a House of Commons Parliamentary Select Committee for failing to disclose the failings within Jobcentre Plus and for its management of staff cuts. Jobcentre Plus management also drew criticism by the cross party committee of Members of Parliament for introducing new IT-based benefit systems and procedures that were not fully tried or tested before their introduction.
The Select Committee highlighted what they described as a "catastrophic failure" and a "truly appalling" level of service provided by Jobcentre Plus in the summer of 2005. The report concluded that the staff cuts (planned at 30,000) within Jobcentre Plus had been poorly planned and implemented by management and should be slowed.
Unions continue to protest (April 2006) at the inadequacies of the service offered to customers, particularly the so-called low-priority groups (those looking for employment who are already employed or not claiming benefit), those experiencing redundancy, and the hundreds of thousands of jobseekers from the Accession states of the European Union, who are currently being turned away.
Proposals for reform of Incapacity Benefit and its eventual replacement with the new Employment and Support Allowance is also causing concern in some quarters, particularly with charities and support groups for the disabled.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Jobcentre Plus job search
- Direct Gov jobs and training search
- Public and Commercial Services Union
- The Guardian
- Restart The Musical - Jobcentre-related Theatrical satire
- BBC report into the Work and Pensions Select Committee report into job cuts and poor services at Jobcentre Plus
- March 2006 Select Committee report into Efficiency Savings Programme in Jobcentre Plus
- Written and Oral evidence submitted to the Work and Pensions Select Committee into the failure of the Efficiency Savings Programme in Jobcentre Plus
