DARLING ANNOUNCES RADICAL NEW JOBS TARGET
19 Mar 2002 10:13 AM
New-look Jobcentres will have to focus their efforts on helping
people into work from priority groups, such as lone parents, disabled
people and those in the most disadvantaged areas.
This was one of a series of ambitious targets set out today by Work
and Pensions Secretary Alistair Darling when he announced the
comprehensive reorganisation of the Department for Work and Pensions
with the formation of two new executive agencies -Jobcentre Plus and
The Pension Service.
Alistair Darling said: "These changes represent the most
comprehensive shake-up of welfare delivery for a generation with a
clear focus on individual needs." From April Jobcentre Plus will
replace the Benefits Agency and Employment Service to form a single
service to help the jobless into work and provide work and benefits
advice.
Fifty six pathfinder offices have been operating since last October
and over the next 12 months the service will be rolled out to cover a
quarter of the entire office network.
Other targets include the reduction of losses from fraud and error in
payment of Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance and a target of
85% of employers placing their vacancies with Jobcentre Plus to be
filled.
The Pension Service will provide a dedicated service for today's and
tomorrow's pensioners and will play a crucial role in tackling
pensioner poverty and encouraging saving for retirement. From April
The Pension Service will replace the existing Benefits Agency
services for pensioners, and will be working to introduce a better
service tailored to the needs of pensioners.
The Pension Service will operate through a national network of
pension centres, delivering a primarily telephone-based service.
Alongside this there will be a locally based service with staff
dedicated to pensioners and pensioner issues which also provide
outreach activity working in partnership with local authorities and
voluntary organisations.
Mr Darling added: "Modernising the delivery of welfare services will
not happen overnight. Members of the public should continue to use
their local Jobcentre and social security office until their new
Jobcentre Plus arrives over the next few years. However the creation
of the new services is a significant step in focusing on the future."
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. Every working day the DWP makes 3.5 million benefit and pension
payments and places 5,000 unemployed people into jobs. It undertakes
maintenance assessments for over a million children, and deals with
over 260,000 appeals.
2. Disability and carer benefits will still be administered from
their present centres in Blackpool and the regions - in future it
will be known as the Disability and Carers Service. The Child Support
Agency and The Appeals Service will continue in their present form.
Child benefit will function as a separate business until its transfer
to Inland Revenue on 1 April 2003. Debt Management provides the
Department's debt management services.
3. A formal announcement of the Department's reorganisation was made
in response to a Parliamentary Question from Helen Clark MP.
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