SNPandLabourteamup in bid to halt proposals
SNP and Labour have teamed up to call on the UK Government to halt “counter-productive” plans to close more than 20 Jobcentres in Scotland.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) revealed plans last month to divest itself of 16 premises north of the border, nine of them Jobcentres.
The announcement was the latest round of planned closures, following December’s proposal to shut 13 Scottish Jobcentres, including eight in the Glasgow area.
Minister for Employability and Training, Jamie Hepburn, urged cross-party support for his motion urging the UK Government to halt the closures to enable Scottish ministers to bring forward further co-location proposals to “save” the centres.
Speaking in a Holyrood debate, he said: “The now Scotland-wide planned closures are proposals that impact on communities and people the length and breadth of the country.
“They are disproportionate in impact, they have been announced with little detail, with limited consultation and with even less engagement with those who rely on and those who work in Jobcentre Plus services.”
He revealed UK Employment Minister Damian Hinds had told him it was “not possible to say” how many potential redundancies the proposals involve.
Mr Hepburn accused the DWP of “making decisions based on lines or circles on a map” and said extra cost for travel would have the biggest impact on vulnerable claimants, saying those he had met told him of concerns over paying for travel or for food.
He added: “I think it’s clear these changes proposed by the DWP will have a negative impact on service users.”
Labour’s Mark Griffin said his party would back the Scottish Government motion.
He said: “At a time when the Tories are cutting social security and hitting low paid workers with sanctions, when 139,000 people in Scotland are out of work, these proposals are reckless at best and at worse utterly perverse.
“It’s completely counter-productive for the UK Government to close so many Jobcentres.
He accused Tory leader Ruth Davidson of being “in hiding” on the issue, adding: “Ruth Davidson’s Tories need to stop trying to rebuild the economy off the backs of the poor, the sick and the disabled people and call on the DWP to halt these plans.”
Tory MSP Adam Tomkins said: “The proposals are coming when the jobs market in the UK, including here in Scotland, has changed very considerably. There are now more jobs in the British economy than ever before. In Glasgow the claimant count has fallen by 44% since 2010.
“We’re talking about redesigning Jobcentres to be more effective rather than cutting services.”