Most Jobcentre staff ‘feeling unsafe’

Most Jobcentre workers do not feel safe going into offices after they fully reopened last week, a union has said as it warned of industrial action.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said a survey of more than 1,000 of its members found around three in five feel unsafe, while another one in five are unsure about their safety because of continuing fears about the virus. The union said most inpersoninterviews,carriedout on Universal Credit and other benefit claims, should be done remotely.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "These results reflect the anger and frustration our members feel every day. Thousands of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) staff have been providing support to claimants safely from home throughout the pandemic. The only logical reason they would insist on fully reopening is because management's obsession with sanctioning vulnerable claimants.”