MINISTERS RISK STRIKES AT BENEFIT CENTRES BY IGNORING CHAIN OF FAILURES: MULHOLLAND

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 11th Jan 2006

As talks take place today between the Department for Work and Pensions and the PCS union in an attempt to avert strike action later this month, new figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show severe delays and mounting failures in service delivery from Jobcentre Plus.

Jobcentre Plus operates a new call centre and IT system requiring claimants of income support, jobseekers allowance and incapacity benefit to make their claim by first calling a contact centre, then waiting for a call back to arrange an interview.

With average delays of up to 4 days for a call back, over a week for an interview, followed by a further wait to process the claim and issue payment, the worst cases are left waiting for weeks, facing severe financial hardship and are being advised by Jobcentre Plus staff to apply for crisis loans.

The Liberal Democrat research shows:

• Almost no claims are going through the assessment process within target times

• The time taken to process new claims has grown by nearly 50% since 2000

• Just 2 out of 21 contact centres are meeting call back target times

• Growing numbers of Jobcentre Plus contact centres are resorting to clerical processing; in one centre for up to 70% of cases

• More than 20,000 jobs at Jobcentre Plus, a quarter of all staff will have gone in the six years up to 2008

Commenting, Mr Mulholland, member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, said:

"These figures demonstrate that claimants are beset by delays at every stage of the application process. This chain of failures is simply unacceptable and is causing financial hardship to vulnerable claimants. Yet the Department is pressing ahead with major staffing cuts regardless.

"I have great sympathy for DWP staff, whose main concern is to provide a good service for claimants. The Government has been grossly irresponsible in allowing the situation to deteriorate to the point of strike action when it has known for a long time that Jobcentre Plus is in a mess.

"Any further job cuts should be postponed until the failures at Jobcentre Plus are resolved. Completion of the national rollout of the Customer Management System must be put on hold, or they will be extending a failing IT system to even more customers."