Extra resources for Fraud and Error Service
DWP have announced that Taunton Contact Centre will become a permanent Fraud and Error office. DWP have been given additional resources to help reduce the amount of money lost through Fraud and Error and so wishes to transfer staff in to this area.
Taunton has been selected on the basis that offices in the Southern OSN have been relatively unaffected by the other recent staffing moves. Taunton is also one of the offices affected by the out-sourcing of JSA new claims calls to Capita.
Over the coming months DWP expect to announce further transfers of staff from Contact Centre Services (CCS) onto Fraud and Error work. At present management are not able to say where these staff will come from.
External recruitment into Contact Centres
Management have also announced their intention to recruit 365 new staff into CCS to replace the staff that they expect to transfer into the Fraud and Error Service over the coming months. These staff will be recruited on fixed term contracts though they will have the possibility of conversion to permanency as part of their contract. These staff will be spread over 16 contact centres, based on the sites with the greatest spare capacity.
This is the now the seventh announcement about moving staff around Operations in the last 4 months. While we welcome the belated move to recruit additional staff, these staff will not help the staffing crisis in DWP as they are effectively only being recruited to backfill behind other staff moving to Fraud and Error.
Management’s view is that the creation of six satellite contact centres, the recruitment of apprentices and the transfer of Glasgow Visits into CCS should give CCS sufficient staff to cope and eventually take the JSA new claims calls back in-house. PCS still believes DWP needs more staff and will continue to call on DWP to mount a large scale recruitment exercise of permanent staff across the department.
PCS have of course made the point to management that these new recruits will be filling long term vacancies and so the staff should therefore be recruited as permanent staff from the outset.
DWP has so reduced its internal capacity that it is not even able to manage what is a relatively small recruitment exercise. As a result the department will be contracting a private company to manage the recruitment process. This is yet another example of how DWP desperately needs additional staff.
DWP have said though that they, and not the recruitment company, will retain the final say in who is selected.
3 Job Centre closures proposed
DWP has also informed PCS that it is considering the closure of three Job Centres: Nantwich, Penrith and Clitheroe. Public consultation on the closure of Nantwich has already begun and it will begin at Clitheroe and Penrith this week.
The proposal is that all services from these Job Centres, along with the staff, would be relocated to their nearest Job Centre with only a part time outreach service for vulnerable customers remaining. This means that DWP is effectively removing its presence from these three towns and will be expecting the claimants who are using its services there to travel considerable extra distances in order to sign on or to see their advisers.
PCS opposes these closure proposals and will campaign to keep these Job Centres open. We believe that these closures, if they go ahead, will seriously degrade DWP’s customer services in the locations affected. We also fear that some of the staff affected may have difficulties travelling to the new sites, given the significant distances involved, and may be outwith mobility.
Management have agreed to use the public consultation period to also consult with staff to learn what problems the closures would mean for the staff in advance of the final decision on the closure being taken. One to one meetings will be arranged and it is essential that members use these to highlight as soon as possible any issues they may have with the proposed closures. Members concerns should be forwarded to PCS Group office, through the local branch, to inform our discussions with management.
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