DWP closing 42 job centres as Universal Credit claimants handed warning

Forty-two temporary job centre sites or additional spaces will be closed by the Department for Work and Pensions in the coming months. These sites were set up during the coronavirus pandemic to help people who were claiming benefits such as Universal Credit to be able to find employment.

A total of 194 temporary sites and additional spaces were opened during Covid as Jobcentres. Over the next few months these will be "decommissioned or absorbed into the estate", reports MirrorOnline.

Last February, 20 temporary Jobcentres were closed by the DWP, followed by a further 19 in May and in June there were 36 closures. A spokesperson for the DWP said: "We no longer need the temporary space we acquired during the pandemic to accommodate social distancing.

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"The closing of these temporary sites will not reduce our levels of service, or access to face-to-face appointments. Customers will return to being served by their established Jobcentre and there will be no reduction in the number of work coaches serving customers as a result."

An update was issued on the website for the UK Parliament by Jo Churchill, Minister of State for Employment, who said: "The decommissioning of Temporary Jobcentres will not reduce the levels of service, or access to face–to–face appointments. Customers will return to being served by an established Jobcentre and there will be no reduction in the number of Work Coaches supporting customers as a result of the decommissioning."

Full list of JobCentre closures

Temporary JobCentres

• Aberdeen

• Basingstoke

• Birmingham (South)

• Blackpool

• Bradford

• Chatham

• Coventry

• Eastbourne

• Edinburgh Waverley Bridge

• Fareham

• Halesowen

• Kidderminster

• Leicester

• London Barnet

• London Cooks Road (Newham)

• London Ilford (Redbridge)

• London Queen’s Park (Brent Wembley)

• London Royal Albert Dock (Newham)

• London Woolwich

• Macclesfield

• Manchester (Central)

• Milton Keynes

• Norwich

• Peterlee

• Portsmouth

• Slough

• Solihull

• Staines upon Thames

• Sutton in Ashfield

Additional spaces

• Ayr (reabsorbed)

• Cambridge (reabsorbed)

• Horsham (reabsorbed)

• Lancaster (reabsorbed)

• Leamington Spa (reabsorbed)

• London Peckham (Southwark) (reabsorbed)

• Shrewsbury (decommissioned)

• Sittingbourne (reabsorbed)

• Southport (reabsorbed)

• St Albans (reabsorbed)

• St Helens (reabsorbed)

• Waltham Cross (reabsorbed)

• York (reabsorbed)