LOCALS affected by plans to axe half of Glasgow’s JobCentres will be able to participate in an online consultation after a DWP climbdown.
The move was announced after a meeting between SNP MPs and Employment Minister Damian Hinds to express concern at the decision to close eight JobCentres in the city.
Ministers insists that the merging of smaller offices into larger ones will mean no change in the level of service JobCentres offer people in Glasgow and will save taxpayers money.
But Stewart McDonald, the SNP MP for Glasgow South, who organised the meeting with the minister, said: “The Department for Work and Pensions have so far avoided any public attention towards the consultation so it was a small yet significant victory that the government will now put the public consultation online and extend until the end of January 2017. The minister must now ensure that the claimants affected by the callous closures are notified so that they can have their say.”
Earlier, Mr McDonald raised his concerns during Business of the House questions in the Commons when he pointed out how eight days on from the planned closures announcement there was still no information about the consultation on the DWP website.
In response, David Lidington, the Commons Leader, said: “The central point is that there will no change in the level of service that JobCentres offer people in Glasgow.
“The DWP is merging a number of smaller offices into bigger sites as leases come to an end so that we can save taxpayers, including Scottish taxpayers, money without changing the service offered.
“The government have already consulted on the plans but there will be further consultation in areas where people have to travel more than three miles or for longer than 20 minutes to reach a JobCentre,” he added.
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