Campaign launched to protect benefit workers

Campaign launched to protect benefit workers

29 August 2012

A COMMUNITY campaign has been launched in a bid to stop more public sector jobs leaving Downpatrick.

The Social Security Agency (SSA) is proposing to move staff from local SSA offices to a new benefits processing centres leaving only ‘front office’ staff manning much smaller offices.

Under the proposal which is likely to take place in December, the SSA building at Mount Crescent in Downpatrick will close and 10 staff will be retained in Downpatrick to man a new Jobs and Benefit office at Rathkeltair House. All the other staff, who are mostly women, will be required to travel to new centres in either Newry, Lurgan or Armagh.

The proposal is currently out to consultation.

The decision to close the Downpatrick office is a direct about turn by the Department of Social Development which had previously planned to make Downpatrick the centre for one of the new processing centres.

When South Down MP, Margaret Ritchie, was Social Development Minister she approved the creation of a new centre at the Downshire Estate, beside the new Down Council headquarters. This would have brought an additional 100 public sector jobs into Downpatrick.

However, the new Minister, Nelson McCausland, says there is no longer enough money to create the Downpatrick Centre and the project has been scrapped.

At a public meeting in St. Mary’s High School organised by Downpatrick Chamber of Commerce over 100 staff members from the local SSA offices, trade unionists, politicians and local business owners gathered to voice unanimous opposition to the proposal.

Michelle Tracey, who works in the Downpatrick SSA office, said the proposal is the latest plan to relocate public sector jobs from South Down, including the Planning Service office,

Rating Agency office, Housing Executive housing benefit office and several jobs from the Downshire.

“This is only the latest in a long number of future proposals to remove public sector services and centralise them in other areas out of our community,” she said. “It is vital that as a community we stand together and oppose this latest decision.”

Ms. Tracey said the proposal is discriminatory towards women and will place impossible burdens on women who are the main carers for chldren and dependant eldelry people. She also pointed to the difficulties in getting to the other proposed processing sites.

However, she said there is more than enough space in Rathkeltair House in Downpatrick to house a benefit processing centre which means the expense of a new build is not needed.

Highlighting the amount of business the Downpatrick office has to deal with, Ms. Tracey added: “These figures, plus those from other offices, highlight the need for a full benefit processing centre and not a front line service which will put immense pressure on the few staff in the front line offices who will remain on site.”

The chairwoman of the public meeting, Tracey Quail, President of Downpatrick Chamber of Commerce, said the business community is fully behind the retention of the SSA jobs in South Down.

“This change will have a big impact on other towns of South Down, including Newcastle and Ballynahinch. But the main impact will be on the staff who are being expected to travel to centres throughout Northern Ireland and this is unacceptable,” she said.

A committee was established at the meeting to fight the proposal and highlight the impact the loss of public sector jobs will have on South Down.