§ Mr. Stuart Hollandasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) whether the funding of new staff to be recruited at Broadstairs and Chatham to take the casework that has been out-stationed from the Oval office of his Department will be paid from the underspend in central south London; and if he will make a statement;
(2) what steps have been taken to ensure that the new staff recruited at the Chatham and Broadstairs offices of his Department will be able to process the full range of supplementary benefit claims; and if he will make a statement;
(3) what additional staff will have to be recruited in Chatham and Broadstairs to handle the casework out-stationed from the Oval office of his Department.
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§ Mr. LyellThe single payments work which is out-stationed from the Department's Oval office is being processed at Chatham. Single payments work from local offices in London South Region other than Oval is being processed at both Chatham and at Broadstairs. Twenty-four additional staff have been recruited (12 at each office) and are being funded from within the region's staff budget. The new staff will be trained and deployed exclusively on single payments work for a maximum of six months after which they will be given full training.
The complements of south London offices have not been reduced to provide staff for the two out-station offices nor has the Department reduced its effort to recruit staff to fill existing and expected vacancies in south London offices.
The Oval office received an additional 16 staff above the number justified by normal staffing arrangements as its share of the extra 5,000 allocated to local offices this year.