JOBCENTRE CLOSURES TO BE REVIEWED

Employment minister Tony McNulty told Westminster reporters it was a "no-brainer" to look again at the scaling back of the network of JobCentre Plus offices at a time of rising unemployment.

Unemployment figures for September, released last week, showed that 1.82 million were out of work - the highest since 1997. Economists are predicting the total will soon pass two million and may even hit three million as the downturn continues.

Asked what action the Department for Work and Pensions was taking to help the country prepare for rising joblessness, Mr McNulty said: "The closure plan for JobCentre Plus offices is a no-brainer, we should revisit it."

Shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling later said: "It feels like the Government is making policy on the hoof. Many of the JobCentres under threat have already been closed and can't just be reopened.

"All of this underlines the fact that the Government has no real strategy for dealing with unemployment even though there have been warnings for months now that it was going to rise."

Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokeswoman Jenny Willott said: "The Government is finally accepting that it is crazy to carry on closing JobCentres when 1,500 people are losing their job every day.

"More than 40 JobCentres were closed last year, while the backlog in outstanding Jobseekers Allowance applications has more than doubled.

"The Government must do more than review the JobCentre closure programme.

"They must stop it altogether and recruit more staff so newly unemployed people get the support they need, when they need it."