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Latest employment figures show signs service is breaking down

19 January 2011

The rise in overall unemployment but recorded drop in claimants appears to confirm fears that a backlog of claims is mounting after 3,500 Department for Work and Pensions staff have been forced to move from processing benefit claims into call centres.

Staff in the seven newest Jobcentre Plus call centres have been transferred from processing to handling enquiries by phone.

This means experienced benefit processors are answering calls but are not allowed to deal with the query behind them. As there are not enough staff left in benefit processing to call people back, enquiries are going unanswered.

Staff in the seven centres will be on strike tomorrow and Friday in protest at intolerable conditions, including excessive monitoring and inflexible working arrangements.

The aim is to: improve the jobs in contact centres to improve customer service and allow more varied work; end the target driven culture, particularly by changing the way unrealistic “average call times” are used; and introduce proper flexi-time arrangements.

The offices affected are Bristol, Glasgow, Newport in south Wales, Norwich, Sheffield, Makerfield near Wigan, and Manchester.

The union has accused Jobcentre Plus of having “an obsession” with hitting call centre targets at the expense of providing a good quality public service. PCS members want to be allowed to deal properly and professionally with the calls they receive and stop having to fob customers off simply to meet arbitrary targets.

The oppressive conditions are resulting in high levels of stress and sickness, and staff are leaving at an alarming rate. Since April 2010, more than 2,700 staff have left - over 20% of the total call centre workforce of 12,800.

DWP announced as part of the government’s spending review in October 2010 that it would be cutting a further 15,000 staff across the department over the next two years.

Jane Aitchison, PCS’s DWP group president, said: “These targets are putting unacceptable working pressures on our members, who just want to be able to provide a genuine customer service to members of the public.

"The department’s obsession with targets means callers are not receiving that, and that’s not good enough.”

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “While unemployment will continue rising as the spending cuts bite, our members face increasing workloads with fewer staff. If the government invested in jobs and our economy none of this would be happening.

"DWP management need to urgently investigate why the claimant rate appears to be falling when unemployment is going up and to put proper resources in place to handle people's claims effectively.”

 

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