Outcry as 95 benefits jobs go to Glasgow

ALMOST 100 benefits office staff are facing the dole under plans to move their jobs from Portobello to Glasgow.

Staff have been told the social security office at Phoenix House has been earmarked for closure as part of a shake-up of the Department of Work and Pensions.

Their jobs would be switched to Glasgow - but they will be laid off and new staff recruited in the west.

The plans were today branded "appalling" and "madness" by Edinburgh East MP Gavin Strang.

He warned at least some of the staff - many with decades of service behind them - would end up claiming the benefits they are currently processing.

The move comes just a month after the 95 staff at the Portobello office were given a new role by the DWP.

The office was closed to the public and staff were set to work processing social fund applications from across Lothian and the Borders.

Dr Strang said: "I am simply appalled at this decision. If any private sector company treated its staff in this way there would be a public outcry.

"We are talking about 95 highly experienced staff who now have little chance of finding alternative, equivalent work.

"I have spoken to managers who have repeatedly praised the efficiency and skill of the staff at Phoenix House but they are now proposing to move it to Glasgow and 'recruit off the street'. That is madness.

"I am a hundred per cent determined to prevent this closure.

"Owing to the radical reorganisation in Edinburgh, there is nowhere to redeploy these people within the DWP and they have been told they will not be needed in Glasgow.

"It seems that we will soon have people who were once administering benefits being forced to claim them. We are talking about highly experienced and able staff who have ten, 20 or 30 years' experience."

Dr Strang intends to raise the issue with Department of Work and Pensions Minister Caroline Flint at the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Ms Flint told the Evening News she was "pleased" to get the opportunity to discuss the issues surrounding the Portobello office.

She added: "We are reorganising the benefit-processing centres to make the service they provide more streamlined, which will improve the service we offer our customers.

"This means we will be moving work from the Portobello office. For all our staff who are affected by the changes, we will be actively seeking re-deployment to other opportunities in Edinburgh."

However, Jim Christie, Edinburgh branch secretary of the PCS union, said: "We are very angry. We are determined to try and stop this closure.

"We are talking about highly experienced staff who will be unable to be deployed elsewhere in the department in Edinburgh.

"It's only a month since the last reorganisation."

Council leader councillor Jenny Dawe expressed concerns about the proposals.

She said: "Unnecessary redundancies are both costly and wasteful in terms of training, experience and morale."