Dear Emma
Thank you for your request of 13 January. You asked:
1; Please could I have a headcount as of today's date 13/1/16 for
all band A, band B and band C staff in paid (by DWP) employment
roles at job centre plus offices. If this is not available please
supply me with headcount for these pay bands across the whole of
DWP in paid (by DWP) job roles. I already have figures till
31//5/15.
2; I would also like the names of the DWP staff policies/procedures
and the dates that any of these DWP staff policies/procedures were
updated/changed during the periods October 2013 to October 2014.
3; How many medical retirement applications were received during
the period Oct 2009 - December 2014? Of these, how many were
rejected or accepted?
4; How many members of staff were sacked on attendance management
(sickness) grounds in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015?
5; Please give me FULL list (not a list that is not exhaustive) of
ALL examples of gross misconduct offences that are likely to get an
employee sacked for a first time offence.
4; How many customers who were sanctioned whilst claiming Job
Seekers Allowance went on to claim hardship benefit? Also
separately how many went on to claim sickness benefit?
5; How many JSA claiments lives have ended following having their
benefit sanctioned?
6; How many of the 67 suicides salvation army has reported locally
here in Swindon were claiments who had been sanctioned? (figures
are; 26 suicides reported in Swindon in 2012 compared to 11
reported in 2005. This rose to
67 between 2012 - 2014 (coincidentally when the sanctions regime
was most active)!
Some of this information has been sourced from the DWP Resource Management System. This is a live system so is subject to change. The system manages approximately 90,000 employee accounts at any time.
Whilst Jobcentre Plus remains the branding of the Department's frontline face to face service, the executive agency status of Jobcentre Plus ended during 2011-12 as DWP integrated its frontline agencies into one operation. The tables below show figures for Work Services Directorate, which has responsibility for operating our Jobcentre network.
Q1 (Headcount)
Payband / Paid headcount for Work Services Directorate at31 December 2015 (last date data available)
Band A/AA / 7
Band B/AO / 7,781
Band C/EO / 17,872
Q2 (Policies/Procedures)
Policy or Procedure / Date Policy Changed / Date Procedure ChangedInduction / None / None
Probation / None / 10/02/14
Selection / 02/04/14, 29/09/14 / 29/09/14
Being a parent
- Adoption Leave / None / None
- Maternity Leave / 15/05/14 / None
- Parental Leave / None / None
- Ordinary Paternity Leave / None / None
- Additional Paternity Leave / None / None
- Shared Parental / None / None
Datahandling
Health
- Occupational Health / 14/02/14, 12/09/14 / 14/02/14, 25/02/14, 12/09/14
- Smoking / None / None
Problems at work
- Attendance Management / 11/10/13, 31/03/14 / 11/10/13, 20/11/13, 31/03/14
- Crisis Of conscience / None / None
- Discipline / 11/10/13 / 11/10/13, 20/11/13, 24/02/14, 07/04/14, 02/06/14, 29/09/14
- Grievance / 11/10/13, 14/08/14, 01/10/14 / 11/10/13, 21/10/13, 30/10/13, 04/11/13, 10/12/13, 07/02/14, 19/09/14
- Managing Poor performance / None / 26/02/14, 07/04/14, 01/08/14, 30/09/14
- Mediation / None / None
- Stress at work / 18/10/13 / 18/10/13
- Whistleblowing / 28/05/14 / 28/05/14, 01/10/14
Standards of Behaviour / 11/10/13 / 11/10/13, 17/12/14, 26/03/14, 28/04/14, 02/06/14, 30/06/14, 02/07/14, 08/07/14, 20/10/14
Time off
- Annual Leave / 11/10/13 / 11/10/13
- Public & Privilege leave / 11/10/13 / 11/10/13, 18/03/14
- Sick Leave / 11/10/13, 23/12/13, 11/04/14, 15/04/14, 07/08/14 / 23/12/13, 07/01/14, 29/01/14, 11/04/14, 13/08/14
Employee Relations
- Employee Relations Framework / 02/10/13, 25/03/14, 14/07/14 / None
- Agreement on Avoiding Redundancies / 25/03/14 / None
- Managing industrial action / None / None
- Major disruption to travel / 20/03/14 / 20/03/14
Travel and Expenses
- Additional Attendance Travel expenses / None / None
- Advance of Expenses / None / None
Travelling Away
- UK Travel / 01/01/13, 22/11/13, 18/04/14 / None
- Overseas Travel / None / None
- Subsistence / None / None
Other expenses
- Landline Telephone charges & Broadband service / None / None
- Subscriptions / None / None
- Family Care / None / None
Moving Job
- Relocation / None / None
- Excess fares / None / 18/02/14
Working Patterns
- Working Hours & Working Patterns / 03/01/14, 06/01/14, 27/06/14 / 03/01/14, 10/01/14, 27/06/14
- Working Time Regulations / None / None
- Work Breaks / None / 07/01/14
- Home Working / 31/01/14 / 31/01/14
- Flexible Working Hours / None / None
- Remote & Home Working / 31/01/14 / Contractual Home working 31/01/14, 25/04/14. Occasional & Regular Remote / Home working 31/01/14, 18/03/14
Pay & Reward
- Salary / 25/10/13, 20/12/13, 10/02/14, 17/07/14 / 17/07/14
- Allowance, Additions & Additional Hours / 17/07/14 / 11/04/14, 17/07/14
- Award & Recognition Policy / 23/07/14 / 26/06/14
Performance Management / None / 04/11/13, 03/12/13, 10/12/13, 28/01/14, 10/03/14, 08/04/14, 20/06/14
Leaving the Department
Resignation / None / None
Death in Service / 22/01/14, 18/09/14, 22/10/14 / None
Notice Periods / 02/05/14 / None
Employment References Policy / 11/07/14 / 11/07/14
Redundancy / None / None
Retirement / 19/09/14, 13/10/14 / 13/12/13, 23/12/13, 23/04/14, 13/06/14, 27/06/14, 29/09/14, 01/10/14, 02/10/14
Survey of Leavers / 02/05/14 / None
Valedictory Letters / None / None
Q3 (Medical Retirements)
Period(Jan 10 to 31 Dec 14) / # Number of ill health retirements
2010 / 74
2011 / 93
2012 / 68
2013 / 69
2014 / 67
As 2009 is not a full year we are unable to produce comparative figures.
As outlined in our previous response, we do not hold information on applications for medical retirement centrally and to obtain numbers on these would incur disproportionate costs.
The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations, and for central Government it is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3½ working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information. Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act the Department is not obliged to comply with your request and we are unable to process your request further as it would take us longer than the estimated cost time to retrieve this information for you.
Q4 (Sickness)
Period(jan 10 to 31 Dec 15) / Number dismissed for Unacceptable Attendance
2010 / 711
2011 / 495
2012 / 191
2013 / 216
2014 / 250
2015 / 166
As 2009 is not a full year we are unable to produce comparative figures.
First Q5 (Misconduct)
As outlined in our previous response, the Department takes disciplinary incidents very seriously and has robust policies in place to deal with offences. We provided examples of offences which constitute Gross Misconduct which complies with the requirements of the ACAS Code of Practice.
It is not possible to provide an exhaustive list of all the offences which constitute Gross Misconduct.
Qs 4, 5 and 6 (Sanctions)
In response to questions 4 and 5, we can confirm that the Department does hold some information falling within the description specified in your request. However, we estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the appropriate limit of £600.
The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for central Government it is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3½ working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information. Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) the Department is not obliged to comply with your request and we will not be processing your request further. However you may find the following information useful:
Please note that the intention of sanctions is to encourage people to engage with the support being offered by Jobcentres by making it clearer to claimants what they are expected to do in return for their benefits. Sanctions are a necessary part of the benefits system. The overwhelming majority of benefit claimants take up the jobs support we offer, with a small minority facing a sanction for not doing so.
The Department publishes Official Statistics on Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) sanction decisions and information on these statistics can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions
The latest set of Official Statistics was released on 11 November 2015 and covers sanction decisions made to June 2015 and a summary of this data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/jobseekers-allowance-and-employment-and-support-allowance-sanctions-decisions-made-to-june-2015
These statistics cover both:
(i) total decisions made (i.e. if an individual has had multiple sanctions decisions made, all of those sanction decisions made will be included in the tables), and
(ii) individuals who have had a sanction decision made (i.e. will only 'count' one individual in a table defined and produced).
These statistics also contain a wide set of geographical areas, sanction reason, sanctions appeals and outcomes and can be extracted from Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required from Stat-Xplore can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started---SuperWEB2.html
If you have any difficulties extracting the relevant information please let us know.
You may also find the following publication useful which shows the number of hardship applications received and awards made each month from April 2012 to June 2015.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/jsa-and-esa-hardship-applications-and-awards-apr-2012-to-jun-2015
In response to question 6, we can confirm that the Department does not hold this information.
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number above.
Yours Sincerely,
DWP HR Central Freedom of Information Team
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Your right to complain under the Freedom of Information Act
If you are not happy with this response you may request an internal review by e-mailing or by writing to DWP, Central FoI Team, Caxton House, Tothill Street, SW1H 9NA. Any review request should be submitted within two months of the date of this letter.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office for a decision. Generally the Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our own complaints procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF www.ico.gov.uk
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