Enniskillen Jobs and Benefits office will continue to process Jobseeker’s Allowance until December 2018 and will administer the new Benefit Cap “for the foreseeable future.” In the future, “any staff who are declared surplus will be redeployed.”

The latest update on the future of approximately 40 civil service jobs in the Crown Buildings office came in the form of a letter to Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (FODC) from the Department for Communities’ Director of Working Age Services Maeve Walls.

Almost one year ago, the Enniskillen Jobs and Benefits staff voiced “grave concerns” that the new benefits system will result in less work, forcing staff to commute to other offices across Northern Ireland.
Local councillors have maintained a focus on the issue and the most recent correspondence from Ms. Walls is in response to 10 questions asked by the Councillors.

READ: ‘Grave concerns’ of Enniskillen jobs and benefits staff

Her letter comes in the same week as the DfC announced a £7 million contract with the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which will deliver Universal Credit services to claimants in Great Britain and will secure an additional 125 jobs which will be based at the Lisahally Service Centre in Derry.

Last year, a similar contract with the DWP saw 280 jobs created in Belfast and Armagh.

In her letter to local councillors, Ms. Walls explained that the criteria used to determine which offices would deliver Universal Credit were “having sufficient seating capacity” and “making effective use of the existing estate.”

She added: “With the planned policy and operational changes of modernisation and welfare changes, a restructuring of the delivery of legacy benefits is required to ensure the department can continue to deliver an efficient customer service as workloads decline with the introduction of Universal Credit in September 2017. Enniskillen and Omagh benefits office were considered as part of the site selection process for the establishment of a Universal Credit service centre, an Income Support benefit processing centre or a Jobseeker’s Allowance benefit processing centre, but were not selected due to their incapacity to accommodate the staffing requirements.”

Ms. Walls voiced her commitment to “ensuring that the department continues to be a regional organisation” and said that Enniskillen will administer Benefit Cap (a new system that will make sure that households on out-of-work benefits do not receive more than the average take home pay for working households) for “the foreseeable future.”
Enniskillen staff had voiced concern that Benefit Cap will only bring a handful of jobs to Enniskillen.

Both Enniskillen and Omagh offices “will continue to provide a front office service, playing an important role in supporting those currently claiming Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance and will provide a front-line service for Universal credit,” Ms. Walls said.
Concluding, Ms. Walls said: “Enniskillen and Omagh jobs and benefits offices will be at the core of delivery for Universal Credit so staff will be required to deliver this service.”

Any surplus staff will be “either redeployed to other suitable posts in the same department or in another department,” she said, adding: “It is not possible at this time to state where any vacant posts may be located but any staff who are declared surplus will be redeployed in accordance with the agreed NI Civil Service and the Department for Communities Human Resources policies.”

UUP Councillor Howard Thornton’s proposal that the Council seek an informal meeting with Ms. Walls was backed by the rest of the council.