DWP confirms 42 Jobcentres will close in warning for Universal Credit claimants

05 March 2024 , 12:56

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Job seekers queue outside a Jobcentre Plus branch in London (Image: Getty Images)

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is closing another 42 temporary Jobcentre sites or additional spaces in the coming months.

The locations that are affected are temporary sites or additional spaces in existing sites that were set up during the coronavirus pandemic. Jobcentres are used by people claiming certain benefits such as Universal Credit to help them find employment.

The 12 remaining temporary Jobcentres or additional spaces of the 194 originally opened during Covid will be "decommissioned or absorbed into the estate" over the next few months. The DWP closed 20 temporary Jobcentres last February, followed by another 19 closures in May and 36 in June.

In an update on the UK Parliament website, Minister of State for Employment Jo Churchill 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."

A spokesperson for the DWP said: "We no longer need the temporary space we acquired during the pandemic to accommodate social distancing. 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."

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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)

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