The following notice was posted on the Department for Work and Pensions website last week:
New Jobcentre Plus Opening Hours
"Please note that as part of the Jobcentre Plus response to the economic downturn and to improve customer service, from week beginning 20 April, late opening on Wednesday mornings will be suspended until further notice. Jobcentre Plus offices will open at 9am Wednesday mornings, providers can therefore expect referral activity to begin earlier than currently."
"Please note that as part of the Jobcentre Plus response to the economic downturn and to improve customer service, from week beginning 20 April, late opening on Wednesday mornings will be suspended until further notice. Jobcentre Plus offices will open at 9am Wednesday mornings, providers can therefore expect referral activity to begin earlier than currently."
Need I mention that the first Wednesday morning in question is tomorrow, Budget Day? The very day that the latest unemployment figures are also released?
Would it be unfair to suggest that it might have gone through the minds of the powers-that-be in the DWP that footage of people queuing outside Job Centres, waiting for them to open, would have been even less desirable than usual tomorrow morning?
Or would such ideas only have come about in the "era of spin", which lest we forget, ended when Gordon Brown took over from Tony Blair...
