Any info Possible Closure, Job Centre Thurso

[concerned resident]

Hear rumour big cuts in service, given from Thurso Job Centre and Benifit Department,
even possible closure. I hope this is just a bad dream. Have you heard anything?

[myname1]

Yes its true, dont know when as yet but it is going to happen....everything will be done by mail....shame for those who dont have internet to look for work

[homeboy]

Heard the Job center is due to close at Christmas. Possibly due to the place being on 2 floors and the new ruling coming in about having to have a lift for disabled access.
Makes a change usually things close in Wick !

[concerned resident]

I hope you are wrong and its just down graded with less staff, rather than closure.
Imagine the implications of having to travel to Wick, the cost and the time involved, for those who do not qualify to sign on by post, or have to attend interviews, and any one with a query about their benefits, they will end up with a big phone bill, or a slow service by post.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed it doesn’t end this bad.
One large local company made quite a few of its employee’s redundant lately, there have been some firms going bankrupt in Wick and Thurso, yet I always hear the politicians talking up the economy, but they seam to be ignoring what’s happening in the real world, if you take all the closures, I would consider Caithness is in serious decline at this time.

[Zael]

Yes the closure would be a bit of a blow, but things are not that bad, dont the sosh have a freefone number and I'd think everyone in thurso would qualify for postal signing.

As for firms going bust, how many of the people made redundant havnt got a new job as the unemployment figures dont seem to be any different from last month.

Its actually quite refreshing to read good things about caithness in the papers, doom and gloom breeds doom and gloom, but if you think good thoughts, good things happen.

Positive thinking is whats needed up here, chin up and alll that. We only hear that some company is shedding a workforce in the news but wheres the followup story telling us that they all have new jobs elsewhere?

Think of it this way, if the dole office is closing in thurso, does that not mean that they dont have enough unemployed people to support one? A good thing I think. Roll on the need to close the one in wick. 2.5% unemployment in thurso is a pretty good figure if you ask me.

[concerned resident]

Saturdays Press and journal 1-10-04, A Department of work and Pensions spokeswoman confirmed, “Thurso is on our service delivery as one of the offices we plan to close.
Job losses among Government counter staff in the far north are inevitable following the recent announcement that the Highlands and Islands benefit processing operation is being centralised in Inverness.
Details of the impact on the main Caithness centre in Wick have still to filter through, though there are fears of a cull of the workforce of 100 or so.


Do they realy think that Inverness needs these jobs ?(Inverness is Booming) Is there
nobody out there looking out for whats Best for Caithness

[squidge]

The DWP as a whole is not the slightest bit interested in the people who work for it or the people it serves. This is a cost cutting excercise and nothing more. The Civil Service has to reduce staff - the treasury insists. Most people dont care whether civil servants are working or not - there is a perception that they are overpaid and sit there doing nothing. This is not true. Many people have been helped by this Department in Caithness and the hard work and great pressures that the staff there have worked under during the last few years has rarely been recognised.

Most of the work transferring to Inverness is likely to be benefit processing work and not the work that goes on around finding people jobs. The face to face business of getting people into work will continue i am sure. A friend of mine having made an application for Income Support this summer found that it took about 9 weeks before they got a decision from Jobcentre Plus. The claim was dealt with in Fort William.

Zael's point about low unemployment in Thurso ignores those people who are not on Jobseekers Allowance. It is worth noting that the caller office for the old Benefits Agency at Thurso was one of the busiest in Scotland Those on Incapacity Benefit and Income Support are often required to take help from JobcentrePlus. Traipsing across the county as a single mum with two children under five and no car is not likely to be much fun. Help will maybe be available by phone but it will still reduce services to disadvantaged and socially excluded groups who may not have access to a phone or even these days a phone box.

Dont be fooled by assurances that customer service will not be affected. Pressure and changing prioties will lead to staff being stretched to the utmost and this is bound to affect customer service.

[JAWS]

This is typical of the way the Civil Service works. The cut-backs are obviously meant to weed out the unnecessary paper shufflers.

Unfortunately the people who are in charge of organising the cut-backs are the paper shufflers themselves so they protect their jobs by getting rid of frontline staff who deal with the public.

This causes mayhem and unrest amongst the frontline staff and an outcry from the public who are getting an inadequate service.

The paper shufflers then enlarge their department so they can take on new frontline staff and in addition employ more paper shufflers to re-organise the department in order to prevent a recurrence of the problems they have created themselves.

The extra paper shufflers create a need for more supervisors who will be promoted from amongst the current set of paper shufflers.

The frontline staff get the abuse from disgruntled members of the public, the public get poorer service and the paper shufflers carry on shuffling paper and squabble over paper clips, pencils and who should go and get the tea this time.