GOVERNMENT plans to shut nine offices putting thousands of civil servants at “very real risk of losing their jobs” have been slammed by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union. 

General secretary Fran Heathcote said today that the Department for Work and Pensions was closing the service and support centres to cut costs, rather than to improve efficiency and working conditions as it has claimed.

The department previously justified the closures as a means for the “DWP estate to be smaller, more effective and deliver better value for money for the taxpayer.”

But Ms Heathcote hit back, warning the move would actually mean forced relocation and put staff at risk of redundancy.

She said: “These closures are being presented as modernisation, but for thousands of our members they mean uncertainty, longer journeys, disruption to family life and the very real risk of losing their jobs.

“DWP has had years to modernise its estate, yet staff continue to work in poor-quality buildings while being asked to pay the price for the department’s cost-cutting agenda.”

Ms Heathcote added that her union “fundamentally opposes these office closures, and any further closures of service centres or jobcentres that would remove jobs from communities.”

A DWP spokesperson said: “Through this transition we have been focusing on supporting our staff, with redeployment within the department or in other government departments our first priority.”

The department also claimed that there is “no face-to-face customer contact at the affected sites” adding: “Jobcentres and the other vital services we deliver to customers are unaffected.”