Work coach whistleblowers describe jobcentre safeguarding failures

Whistleblowers have raised serious concerns about safeguarding failures by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that put the lives of benefit claimants at risk.

Disability News Service (DNS) reported last week how conditions at Oxford jobcentre became so stressful that 15 of those in one team of 23 work coaches quit within a 12-month period, with at least eight experiencing a significant collapse in their mental health due to a huge, sudden increase in workload in late 2021.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union, which represents many work coaches, told DNS this week that it was “beyond disgraceful” that many DWP members were “becoming too ill to work because of chronic understaffing”.

He said that failings that could impact on disabled claimants “need to be addressed with the utmost urgency”.

Two of the former work coaches at the Oxford jobcentre (pictured) have told DNS this week about some of the serious safeguarding failures they witnessed at the jobcentre.

One of them, David*, witnessed work coaches failing to follow the department’s “six-point plan”, which instructs staff how to deal with statements by customers that they intend to self-harm or take their own lives.

On one occasion, a claimant had become so distressed during a discussion about removing a benefit sanction that she told a work coach: “I might as well kill myself.”

The work coach did not appear to know what action to take, but instead of instigating the six-point plan – which should at least have led to them gathering information about the level of risk and providing advice on where they could find support – a manager told the claimant the meeting should end, thanked her for coming in, and directed her to the door.

David said: “This is perhaps the most blatant and offensive act in direct opposition to the duty of care we were all bound by that I saw in my time at the Oxford jobcentre.”

He also discovered that the jobcentre’s six-point plan documents were all out of date, listing staff members as vital contact points when they no longer worked at the office and had even left DWP.

He said: “Requests to management by a colleague for these documents to be updated were met with silence and inaction.

“The ultimate consequence of this was that work coaches had no notion of how to support claimants in mental health crises.”

David also said that three work coaches admitted to him that they had previously “ignored” claimants who had disclosed suicidal thoughts or intent to them.

He thinks this was due to how “overworked and stressed” they were, as well as the lack of training.

He said: “They were intimidated by the enormity of the situation, of having another person’s life in their hands, didn’t know how to effectively respond to that crisis, and didn’t have the faintest idea how to fill out the six-point plan form after the incident.

“So they opted to not engage or to just tell them to speak to their GP and send them away.”

DNS has previously reported how at least five secret reviews by DWP into the suicides of claimants recommended that staff should be reminded about the six-point plan following the death of a claimant.

David’s evidence suggests that work coaches and managers continue to ignore the guidance, which has been in operation since 2009.

Jake*, another of the work coaches who spoke to DNS last week about working conditions at Oxford jobcentre, described how a manager stood behind a claimant who was disclosing suicidal thoughts to David, while the manager tapped their watch because he was taking too long on the appointment.

Jake described how he had worked with a claimant who was homeless and had disclosed suicidal thoughts to him, and realised that contact and signposting details for the six-point plan were “completely out of date”.

He said he updated the plan in late 2021, with input from colleagues, but managers failed to approve the updated document until late July 2022.

Jake also said that he and his colleagues would often have to support claimants during episodes of great distress without any specialist training.

He said: “We were often unable to cope with such distressing experiences ourselves, never mind adequately supporting the claimants during such a crisis.”

He said it would often take many days, or even weeks, before work coaches could secure the support they needed.

Even when they finally received a call to provide mental health support, work coaches were frequently not able to take that call because of their excessive workload (see last week’s reports).

Jake said that, despite DWP’s claim last week that there was “a community of mental health first aiders” working in its jobcentres, he was not aware of any such trained staff in the Oxford jobcentre, while his own request for such training was rejected.

He also confirmed the concerns raised repeatedly by disabled activists in recent years, and reported by DNS, that claimants “often relayed that they felt harassed by the DWP through oppressive and excessive contact and the constant fear of financial sanctions”.

These failures continued throughout his time at the jobcentre, from April 2021 to October 2022, when he resigned because of the damage caused to his mental health by the excessive workload.

DWP declined to say if the department would take any action to investigate and address the safeguarding concerns, if ministers were concerned about the claims, and whether the department believed they were widespread across jobcentres.

But a DWP spokesperson said in a statement: “We support millions of people every year and our priority is they get the benefits they are entitled to as soon as possible and receive a supportive and compassionate service.

“The safety of vulnerable customers who may need additional health and wellbeing support remains a top priority and we have safeguards in place to protect them.

“We take any staff concerns very seriously and are committed to tackling any issues that are raised.”

The department also claimed that only one link to the six-point plan document had been out of date and that this link had been removed.

But Jake said this was not true.

He said: “What the DWP has told DNS is disingenuous at best and is absolutely not true.

“The six-point-plan (6PP) was dangerously outdated in all critical areas.

“Local managers were warned about these serious risks, repeatedly, by more than one work coach.

“I went to great efforts along with colleagues, to update all 6PP documentation and despite said documents being presented to a local senior manager for approval and action, no crisis measures were implemented and changes were not made for several months.

“This is the truth and my account can be substantiated, robustly.”

A PCS spokesperson said it was “not aware in 2021 of all the issues raised, nor did it have all the detail that has recently emerged”, and was not aware that the issue of work-related stress at Oxford jobcentre had been reported by Jake to the Health and Safety Executive.

But he said: “We recognise the lack of adequate mental health support for DWP staff and continue to negotiate with the appropriate management nationally to improve mental health support.

“We would much rather members were in a position where mental health crisis management was less likely to be necessary by addressing the root causes of the problem – chronic understaffing – rather than the symptoms.

“The issues of understaffing and the unacceptable stress experienced were reported to Oxford jobcentre management at the time and continue to be reported since.

“DWP management were not responsive to PCS arguments. Local management have been uncooperative and do not engage well with PCS.”

He said DWP management in Oxford had now recognised the staffing issues, but recruitment campaigns “have not been successful because in a labour market as competitive as Oxford, there are many other better paid and less stressful jobs available.

“As a consequence, jobcentre staffing levels remain inadequate in the Oxford area, as with many others across the UK.”

Serwotka said DWP members had reported “dangerous levels of stress placed on them by heavy workloads” during a recent consultation.

He said: “It is beyond disgraceful that many DWP members, particularly those working in jobcentres and universal credit service centres, are becoming too ill to work because of chronic understaffing.

“PCS recognises that low staffing levels in DWP have resulted in unacceptable failings in service delivery.”

He said that failings that could impact on disabled claimants “need to be addressed with the utmost urgency”.

Serwotka said: “It is unacceptable that a staffing crisis could have resulted in six-point plans not being followed or claimants with suicidal ideation not being dealt with in a manner that manages their circumstances safely.”

PCS is campaigning for an extra 30,000 staff across DW, but he said the department was failing in its recruitment because of “systemic low pay”, with 25,000 staff currently paid below the Real Living Wage, and the poor working conditions.

He said PCS “routinely raises issues relating to understaffing with the DWP and encourages any member who is experiencing unacceptable levels of stress in their DWP workplace to report the issue to their local PCS representative”.

*Not his real name

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