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Dept for Work and Pensions

Answer

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the (a) location and (b) numbers of staff employed in each benefit processing centre. [188985] Maria Eagle: Benefit processing is carried out by Jobcentre Plus, the Disability and Carers Service and the Pension Service. Currently, Jobcentre Plus has about 21,000 staff involved in benefit processing, spread across 633 sites. The majority of these sites are primarily involved in delivering our Welfare to Work programmes and have very few staff processing benefits. Currently there are three benefit centres, the primary function of which is processing benefits. Jobcentre Plus benefits processing will be centralised in 81 sites by 2008. The former Secretary of State made an announcement to the House on 29 June 2004, Official Report, columns 8–9WS, regarding the future of Pension Service centres. The Secretary of State announced on 16 September 2004, Official Report, columns 178–80WS, details of the 81 sites which will carry out benefit processing by 2008. The information for the three Jobcentre Plus benefit centres, Disability and Carers Service centres and the Pension Service centres are in the tables. Jobcentre Plus benefit centres (August 2004) Benefit centre Number of staff Belfast 323 Glasgow 503 Makerfield 287 Disability and Carers Service processing centres (August 2004) Processing centre Number of staff Birmingham 495 Bootle 210 Bristol 210 Cardiff 195 Edinburgh 150 Fylde (22)3,020 Glasgow 165 Leeds 253 Manchester 173 Newcastle 154 Preston 1,157 Sutton 328 Wembley 358 (22) Fylde coast has approximately 600 staff involved in functions outside benefit processing. A small number of staff at each of the other sites are not directly involved in benefit processing. Pension Service centres (August 2004) Pension centre Number of staff Bath PC 400 Birmingham PC 366 Blackpool PC 187 Burnley PC 506 Cwmbran PC 238 Dearne Valley PC 372 Derby PC 290 Dundee PC 494 London PC (Glasgow) 484 Leicester PC 280 Liverpool PC 253 Motherwell PC 499 London PC (Newcastle) 584 Norwich BH PC 255 Norwich KH PC 308 Nottingham PC 238 Plymouth PC 360 Seaham PC 371 Stockport PC 688 Stockton PC 317 Swansea PC 529 Walsall PC 253 Warrington PC 483 Wolverhampton PC 378 Wrexham PC 382 York PC 285 IPC—Newcastle 997 NPC—Newcastle 986 NPFTC—Newcastle 700 Note: The table shows the number of core processing and management and support staff in post at the end of August 2004. Staff working on local services, projects and central functions are not included.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

426 c1876-8W;426 c1880-2W; 188985

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Administration Department for Work and Pensions Jobcentre Plus Location Staff Social security benefits Pension Service Disability and Carers Service

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk