Does your advice service or organisation work with people who use Jobcentre Plus? Would you like to give your views about Jobcentre Plus services? If so, you may be interested in this invitation to complete a survey being carried out by the National Audit Office (we tweeted about this back on 17 September, but deadline has been extended to Monday 8 October):
"The National Audit Office is independent of Government and scrutinises public spending on behalf of Parliament. We have the statutory authority to report to Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which government departments and associated bodies use their resources to achieve policy objectives.
The number of Jobseekers Allowance claimants increased from 0.9 million in August 2008 to 1.5 million in August 2012. As a consequence of the recession and welfare changes, such as reassessment of incapacity benefit, the workload of jobcentres has increased.
We are conducting a Value for Money study examining the effectiveness and efficiency of the Department for Work and Pensions in responding to change in jobcentres arising from changing economic conditions and welfare reforms. We are seeking to gather the views of customer representatives on how changing workload in jobcentres impacts on customers. Therefore, we would be grateful for your responses to the questions provided in this survey.
We would also appreciate any additional information or research you might wish to pass on to us."
Further background information can be found here. Please contact Dal at AdviceUK with any questions.
