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DWP minister Alison McGovern speaks to The Mirror as she launches a new Jobcentres ‘on wheels’ that have been pulling up at family hubs, retail car parks and outside mosques and churches
Alison McGovern discusses the importance on mobile job centres
New Jobcentres “on wheels” can help break the stigma attached to DWP services for jobseekers, Employment minister Alison McGovern has said.
Her comments to The Mirror came as she launched a new trial of mobile Jobcentres on Monday in an attempt to drive up employment. In recent weeks the vans have been pulling up at family hubs, retail car parks and outside mosques and churches, in Bolton and parts of Wales.
Last week DWP staff pitched up a van at Bolton Wanderers Football Club – providing employment support on match day. Speaking to the Mirror at a mobile Jobcentre outside the Great Lever Family Hub in Bolton, Ms McGovern said: “We are trying to test new ways of helping people.
“We know there is a significant number of people in the country who are socially isolated, where they would like some help and support and advice. We want to try out if we – as the DWP – go to where people are, works better. In Bolton – initially at least – the answer seems to be yes.
“We have set up a trial to see if by creating a small mobile Jobcentre we can make it more convenient for people to stop by, get some advice, get some support, and to try and build a new relationship with people.”
Ms McGovern said there was “absolutely” a stigma attached to Jobcentres. She added: “This [mobile Jobcentres] is new and I’m trying to listen to my colleagues who have actually been out there and doing it are saying to me.
“But from what I’ve heard it seems as though it can help deal with that stigma. If you’re at the football ground or here where we are today at the family hub where parents are coming in for all kinds of different things then I think that definitely can destigmatise.”
The Labour minister said she wanted to repair the “damage” done by the Tories to the reputation of Jobcentes, with only one in six employers now using them.
She said: “There was a whole range of activities that I don’t think were very helpful to employers – getting lots and lots of inappropriate CVs in a way that didn’t help employers find the right person. We’ve got to fix that relationship.”
The mobile service is open to all members of the public, including those not on benefits, and forms part of the government’s drive to overhaul Jobcentres.
Attending the service on Monday, 57-year-old Kristina Hodgkinson, who was a nurse for 35 years before she stopped working. She said: “I’ve worked all my life and last year I didn’t have a good year, I had health issues. And I’m at a point now where I’m trying to think about going back to work.
“I’ve not been on any benefits or anything. I’m just thinking of what’s suitable for me – I’m looking at doing something completely different to what I did before.” She said she heard about the mobile Jobcentre on Facebook and “thought I could nip there”.
Fareed Patel, 23, who achieved a First Class degree in mechanical engineering at Bradford University, has struggled to find work since he graduated in 2023. He said: “I’m trying to get into the renewable energy industry. Everyone wants experience, no one is trying to give you experience. I can’t get anything.” But he said he “loved” the private one-to-one sessions at the mobile Jobcentres was “much better than just handing off your CV online”.
Ahead of a crucial overhaul of disability and sickness benefits, Ms McGovern also said she understood why people were anxious – but refused to give a guarantee payments wouldn’t be cut.
In a government green paper next month, the Department for Work and Pensions is expected to outline proposals to save money from the welfare budget. Ms McGovern said: “I would say to them after 14 years of the Tories I do not blame anybody for being anxious or worried because of what the Tories did to our country.
“I would say to anybody who is thinking is there are a chance for me, is there an opportunity for me, that we are determined to give people those chances.”
But asked whether she could guarantee those on disability benefits will not see their payments cut as a result, she replied: “Unfortunately you’ll have to wait for the green paper. I can’t give any details because I can’t pre-announce what’s going to be in the green paper. But the guarantee I want to make as minister working with our thousands of work coaches up and down the country is that we will make sure there are real chances and opportunities there for people and they get help.”