The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the acting chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Mel Groves. I have asked him to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Mel Groves:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking how many (a) permanent staff (b) temporary and (c) agency staff were employed in (i) benefit delivery centres, (ii) customer facing jobcentres and (iii) contact centres operated by Jobcentre Plus in each (A) region and (B) Jobcentre Plus district (1) in each year since 2002 and (2) in each of the last 24 months. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The great majority of our services (in common with most large, modern organisations) are now delivered through the telephone and internet. For example, to give customers more convenient access, we have around half a million vacancies on-line at any time (our website receives close to one million job searches every working day), and new claims to benefit are predominantly taken by telephone with some taken on-line. This has brought our customer facing services together in a more coherent and integrated network and I believe Jobcentre Plus is well-placed to respond to the full range of economic conditions.
I have placed the available information in the Library. Unfortunately we are unable to provide information prior to April 2003, and for the period from April 2003 to November 2007 are unable to break this down by region or district. We are also unable to provide information on numbers of agency staff. The tables provide for each month from December 2007 the number of full time equivalents (FTEs) employed in each region and district in benefit delivery centres, customer facing jobcentres and contact centres within Jobcentre Plus.
The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the acting chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Mel Groves. I have asked him to provide the right hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Mel Groves:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking how many Jobcentre Plus staff there are in each function. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The table in the attached Annex shows the number of people recorded as deployed to standard functional areas in Jobcentre Plus during February 2009. In addition to staff deployed on these activities there are also around 2,500 people in Directorates that support Jobcentre Plus operations. People in these roles undertake a wide variety of activities that are not recorded separately and are not included in the table.
Jobcentre Plus Activities February 2009 Income Support new claim processing 712 Income Support claims maintenance 2,117 Jobseekers Allowance new claims processing 2,446 Jobseekers Allowance claims maintenance 1,604 Incapacity Benefit new claims processing 301 Incapacity Benefit claims maintenance 1,889 Employment and Support Allowance new claims processing 1,126 Employment and Support Allowance claims maintenance 612 Social Fund activities 2,818 Other benefit processing and maintenance activities 7,815 Benefit telephony team 3,708 Debt referrals activities 395 Benefit management 541 Fraud Investigation Service 2,781 Customer Compliance Service 833 Personal Adviser Activities (includes Management and Support) 13,968 Employer vacancy handling 1,393 Job enquiry activity 64 3rd party provision management 240 E-Social Fund 112 Job Search Review activities 5,232 Allowance payment processors 231 Disability services 85 Employment Zones initiatives 31 New Deal for Disabled People 4 Customer Service Manager 1,490 Jobcentre Manager 571 National Sales Team 59 Access to Work (includes Management and Support) 242 Contact Centre agents 5,999 Business support activities 6,346 Source: Activity Based Management Information Portal