Ramsgate Jobcentre is one of 26 listed for closure by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).
The site at the Argyle Centre in York Street was opened in Ramsgate in July 2021 by Department for Work and Pensions Lords Minister Baroness Stedman-Scott as part of the government’s Plan for Jobs scheme.
She spoke to some of the 34 new local work coaches who were based at the centre about their role helping people land their next job.
At the time the Baroness said: “It’s one of many new sites we are opening across the UK to boost Jobcentre support and help people get back into work and on their feet..”
Ramsgate Argyle Jobcentre Plus was one of 194 temporary sites announced by the Department for Work and Pensions to operate in addition to the existing 639 Jobcentres across the UK.
But now many of the sites are being closed, with Ramsgate included in the latest swathe.
The DWP says: “During the pandemic, and in direct response to the anticipated pressures on the labour market, the Department for Work and Pensions secured time limited funding to:
- rapidly introduce additional jobcentre capacity
- provide more Work Coaches to support claimants
“In total 194 temporary jobcentres or additional space in existing jobcentres were added to the existing network of 639 established jobcentre sites. These temporary jobcentres increased capacity to provide tailored face-to-face support and also supported the government’s Plan for Jobs, helping people back into the labour market right across the UK.
“In July 2022, the department outlined its plans to take advantage of lease breaks and vacate older, poorer-quality jobcentre buildings.
“Several of the temporary sites, where they offer better, more suitable accommodation than our existing offices – and provide better value for money for the taxpayer – will be retained.
“Established jobcentres will move into these buildings. Others will be decommissioned where the increased capacity is no longer needed.”
County Councillor Barry Lewis has questioned the decision. He said: “As unemployment figures start to rise, how are people in Ramsgate without internet availability supposed to claim benefits?
“On its own website page it says the job centre is conveniently sited and gives an essential service so why are they closing what they themselves call an essential service for the people in Ramsgate?”
The closure is expected in the coming months.
The isle’s Margate Jobcentre and Ramsgate centre in Queen Street are unaffected.
Find Jobcentre Plus information here
Who’s the county councillor for Ramsgate? Last I checked, it wasn’t sleepy Barry.
sleepy Shonk….
Im awake 24/7!!
Every politician has a troll, why did i get “
The BOX” ? I do deserve a more intelligent critic .
At least my critics are semi-literate (sometimes).
Ms. Pink x
…..Sleepy Shonk.
There doesn’t need to be unemployment offices however there should be redeployment offices, whereby all employers send their vacancies to the redeployment office and the office interviews the candidate and if suitable the candidate should be sent to the employer who has the vacancy that needs to be filled.
Not sure how that would work-some random person in an office that has nothing to do with your company deciding who you hire. How many offices would you need as well? You do realise that most jobs have hundreds of applicants & some have thousands of them?
Just shows the incredible work these people under the leadership of this wonderful Conservative government have done in increasing local unemployment to 8.0% & then reducing it to 5.6%-the highest in the country, 2.3% higher than the rest of Kent & this will increase with the closure of Wilko. Nobody does it better & turns in such high figures than Thanet.
Of course as soon as Manston opens nobody in Thanet need be out of work, as that will provide 5 million jobs for the local economy & beyond. Even the JCP staff who at that point will be made redundant, while their building gets turned into a joint coffee shop & 99p store can be gainfully employed cleaning plane engines, lifting cargo onto planes, cleaning the toilets etc.
Barry is concerned about the unemployed without internet connections (and presumably without Public Library access) being unable to get their money… fair enough, but shouldn’t he also be asking how they manage to search for work???
Local papers.
You seen the price of ’em?
DWP send people to useless providers weekly & have them look through a month or mores local papers & use their non-operable, malware ridden computers, running Windows 98. It is nothing more than a box ticking exercise, rather than actually trying to help people.
They got me a job.
Twice.
GB news person. Employment agencies have been in existence for many years. The redeployment office would operate in almost the same way. It would save people losing their dignity by being out of work and struggling to find a job. I did say in my post if they were suitable for the post.
But how would somebody who doesn’t work for the employer know if that person is going to fit into the company? They could send a certain number of people along-but picking one isn’t going to work & what would be the point of these companies having HR officers if they have nothing to do with hiring?
No need for jobcentres in Thanet. The place is full of hard working conscientious people who would never steal, shoplift or spend ill gotten gains on drugs or drink. Just walk down any high street & see for yourselves.
GB News. It’s simply temps, the redeployment office would know who was suitable for what post the employer wanted to cover.
You are either winding me up if you cannot understand or you are a Conservative voter. That would explain a lot.
Ah, I thought you meant full-time positions.
In all fairness, how many of the unemployed in Ransgate really want to work, when they ‘konw’ the system. Barry, can the people without internet not use the Library?? or has the council stopped that as a cost cutting exercise. If the internet is available, then all it takes is a little bit of effort for the people who genuinely need to claim benefits. So that part of your argument in respect of closing the Job centre is unfounded, but Yes, I feel sorry for the people sho are going to lose their jobs through no fault of their own.
It’s the same everywhere, sadly (over a million people in Scotland claim to have long covid!). Time to build some work houses.
I thought they wanted to bring back National Service for all the feckless, workshy, lead-swingers, living the high life on 90 quid a week.
They tried to replicate workhouse conditions at Manston Non Processing Centre & it didn’t work out well. Still, rabble-rousing calls to Mail/Express readers for national service, the death penalty & threatening to shoot migrants in the channel during the last few weeks-it will likely be the next Tory wheeze.
Ban all Jobcentres. Along with XL Bullies, the BBC, the right to strike, human rights legislation, the minimum wage & lefties pretending climate change exists.
The “Tory boy Manston lover” is a Labour Party supporter wasting his words. Don’t hide behind silly words be proud to support the Labour Party as I am. The Tories have nothing to be proud of. However I want Manston Airport to reopen.
Everything closing down to cut costs is pretty much the norm these days.
Makes sense really, why have a ‘Job Centre’ in an unemployment blackspot where there are no jobs?
A greengrocer with no veg would soon go out of business.
Restaurants are crying out for staff in Ramsgate.
Yeah, I can imagine they are for the summer months, People need job security not seasonal part-time stuff on minimal wage – Try and pay over inflated rents and utility bills on that for 3 months, then what?
Let them eat cake?
I think the locals eat plenty of that by the looks of ’em!
I am very disappointed for the staff i e Work Coaches. Not the way to treat people, the staff or job seekers.
They knew they were only temporary jobs when they signed the contracts. Anyway with all their experience they can easily find other jobs & if not then Queen’s House is right around the corner.
Great typical Tory comment ‘they can easily find other jobs’ and if not just pop into Queens house round the corner – that’s it, all sorted.
Tories have screwed everything and everyone – even to the stage where they are having to give out ‘back-handers’ to the unemployed @ £300 a bung just to try and cover up the damage done by over a decade of austerity.
Nonsense, as my good friend, the supremely hard working Laura Trott said on that awful liberal BBC channel this morning-just look at what the Tories have done since 2010 & judge them on their track record.
I used the “employability course” service at Argyle House.
Nothing we did there would help us land a job. We were told by our instructor (a guy who used to work for EKC) that they charged DWP £2k per person, per course completed if I remember correctly.