Jobcentre Plus

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Jobcentre Plus (Welsh: Canolfan Byd Gwaith) is the government-funded employment agency facility and the social security office for working-age people in the United Kingdom. The agency was formed when the Employment Service, which operated Jobcentres and existed alongside separate social security benefits offices, merged with the Benefits Agency to become re-branded as Jobcentre Plus on 1 April 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 Stephen Timms MP. The Chief Executive of the agency is Lesley Strathie.

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[edit] Role of Jobcentre Plus

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Jobcentre Plus typically provides resources to enable the unemployed to 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 and the telephone service Jobseeker Direct (0845 60 60 234). It also provides 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 commissioned 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. At the suggestion of the Prime Minister David Lloyd-George, from January 1917 the Labour Exchanges came under the new Ministry of Labour and were renamed 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.

As Unemployment Benefit was only payable for those with a contributions record, and even then for only 12 months for each claim, there remained a group of long-term claimants on low incomes, without access to benefit. This was relieved after the enactment of the National Assistance Act 1946, when payments began to be made to jobseekers on low incomes regardless of contributions.

Initially benefits were paid weekly, in cash, at the Employment Exchange. From 1973, a new network of Jobcentres began to be opened throughout Britain, situated on high streets. These new, forward-looking outlets provided an environment with dedicated advisers focused on getting claimants back to work, without having to resolve benefit claims. This situation has reverted in recent years, as advisers once again deal with benefit payments.

[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, for example those who are already employed or those who are unemployed but not claiming any benefits. Private organisations are now under contract with the government to provide services to benefit claimants through initiatives such as Employment Zones and Pathways to Work. Staff of the Department for Work and Pensions have been instructed to give help only to those in so-called "high priority groups", that is, those who are long-term claimants of Jobseekers Allowance, lone parents or those receiving other benefits such as Income Support or Incapacity Benefit. However, jobsearch facilities are available to anyone via the Jobcentre Plus website, through touch screen interactive jobpoints in local Jobcentres and over the phone via Jobseeker Direct (0845 6060234). The Jobcentre Plus website is the UK's most visited recruitment website with over a million visitors each week. Vacancy information is also available through the UK government's direct.gov.uk portal - over time, all government content is expected to migrate to this single site (as recommended in the Varney report).

Jobcentre Plus also offers services to employers and employment agencies - who can register their vacancies online through the Employer Direct online service or by calling Employer Direct on 0845 601 2001. Vacancies are available immediately through the channels above - (online, phone, and interactive jobpoints).

Alongside these changes, Jobcentre Plus has also changed the way in which claims to benefits are processed. In the past, claimants contacted their local benefits office, were asked to manually complete the appropriate forms, and then booked an interview with an adviser in order to discuss work related issues (as appropriate) and submit the benefits claim for processing. The new system instead asks individuals to call a Jobcentre Plus Contact Centre on 0800 055 6688, where claim details are taken over the phone and entered directly to the computer system by the call agent. Customers are then asked to attend an interview at their local Jobcentre to discuss work issues with an adviser, and finalise their claim, provide relevant signatures and proof of ID and address.

In addition, the actual processing of claims to benefit is also changing, with benefits claim being processed at a smaller number of larger Benefit Delivery Centres rather than local benefit offices and jobcentres.

[edit] Recent controversy

Since the merge with Benefits Agency, Employment Service's sites have been managed by Land Securites Trillium, part of Land Securities group. Through GSH, formerly known as George S. Hall, in the north of England and Scotland, and Dalkia in the south, they manage Jobcentre Plus and Pension Service sites throughout the UK as a private interest in terms of building ownership and maintenance.

Together with cuts to staffing levels, these major changes in how services are delivered 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.[citation needed]

In September 2005, an internal memo obtained by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), who represent a majority of employees led by Mark Serwotka, revealed alleged plans to privatise Jobcentre Plus[citation needed], although this was denied by the then Work and Pensions Secretary, David Blunkett[citation needed]. Since then it has emerged that the then DWP Minister of State Margaret Hodge and high-level civil servants have conducted feasibility studies to consider the outsourcing of some Jobcentre work such as building maintenance, translation services and other work that does not require mainstream civil servants duplicating the work available at lower cost in the private sector[citation needed].

In March 2006, then Minister of State 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[citation needed].

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[citation needed].

Unions, membership of which represent a majority of staff, continue to protest (April 2006) at the inadequacies of some of the services offered to customers and to maintain the assurance that there will be no impact on the number of Civil Servants employed or to the lucrative Civil Service Pension provision[citation needed].

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[citation needed].

[edit] Popular culture

An image of the local Job Centre, aptly named Hadrian House, in Wallsend Metro station labelled "Forum Venalicium" in reference to Wallsend-On-Tyne's Roman past
An image of the local Job Centre, aptly named Hadrian House, in Wallsend Metro station labelled "Forum Venalicium" in reference to Wallsend-On-Tyne's Roman past

The Jobcentre Plus service (and its forerunners the Social Security office, Unemployment Benefit office and Jobcentre/Labour Exchange) have featured in all forms of popular culture, often depicted in a general way to suggest poverty or an uncaring society. In the 1980s in particular, the Social Security office was frequently used as shorthand for the British recession.

Dramatic representations have included the sitcoms Hancock's Half Hour, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Shelley, Bread, Rab C. Nesbitt, the drama series Boys from the Blackstuff and the films Made in Britain and The Full Monty.

In the black comedy series The League of Gentlemen, a recurring character is Pauline Campbell-Jones (played by Steve Pemberton), the demented leader of a Restart course for a group of unemployed (and unemployable) people.

In music, the reggae group UB40 took their name from the form used to 'sign on' at the Unemployment Benefit office (the form is now JSA40). The initials "DHSS" are recited several times by singer George Michael in Wham!'s 1983 hit single Wham Rap!, a tongue-in-cheek celebration of wilful unemployment. The first album by Half Man Half Biscuit was called Back in the DHSS, a play on the Beatles song Back in the USSR (which ironically was itself a parody of a Chuck Berry song). The Joy Division song She's Lost Control is was inspired by a girl singer Ian Curtis met at the DHSS, where he worked at one time.

Poet Attila the Stockbroker performed a poem entitled Russians in the DHSS in 1981.

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