The following details have been supplied by PCS DWP Group:
Management announce further staff moves Bradford and Kilmarnock Benefit Centres to transfer to Fraud and Error Service.
As part of management’s ongoing strategy of moving work around DWP, management have announced the transfer of further staff from the benefits directorate. Management say that this is an attempt to manage workloads due to a number of factors, including the reduced IBRA outputs from ATOS. This latest announcement follows on from significant staff moves from DWP Operations into Child Maintenance Group (CMG) to meet CMG’s increasing staffing demands and the perceived reductions in work in the remainder of mainstream operations.
The two sites involved are Bradford and Kilmarnock. Most of the staff at Bradford, and all of the staff at Kilmarnock, will transfer on a temporary basis to the Fraud and Error Service (FES) from January 2014. The Kilmarnock site has already been earmarked for transfer to CMG and the intention is still that the Kilmarnock transfer to CMG will take place in Quarter 4 of 2014/15. However in the interim staff at this site will transfer temporarily to the Fraud and Error service, part of the Operational Excellence Directorate.
At the Bradford site the majority of staff will transfer on a temporary basis to the new Fraud and Error Service (FES). The remaining staff will continue to undertake benefit directorate work.
It is expected that all AO grade staff will transfer with approximately 50% of AA and EO grades and 2 HEOs. All staff at Kilmarnock will transfer to FES on a temporary basis. This transfer is expected to take place from January 2014 and the Bradford staff are expected to return to benefit directorate work by the end of December 2014. The majority of Kilmarnock temporary transfers are expected to then move to CMG in early 2015 as originally scheduled with approximately 20 staff returning to other work.
The staff that transfer will be expected to undertake work similar to that which has previously been undertaken by the benefit integrity centres at Hastings (transferring to CMG), Ilford and Ramsgate. The latter sites transferred into FES from November 1st 2013. The work of the integrity centres is seen by management as a key part of the department’s strategy to combat fraud and error.
PCS have pressed management to ensure a fair and transparent process for selecting staff to temporarily transfer to FES or remain on BD work. Management have indicated that they expect volunteers to be sought at Bradford and will return to discuss with PCS if there is any need for selection. Any local difficulties should be raised with your local PCS representatives in the first instance.
It should be noted that there are no proposed changes to terms and conditions or location associated with this temporary transfer.
As management seek to balance staffing across operations there will no doubt be other significant movements of work across operations in the coming months.
PCS will continue to press management for details of their strategy and continue to press for increases in staffing as PCS are concerned that significant processing backlogs are building up in parts of operations.
