Lack of job centre privacy is a fraudster’s paradise

I RECENTLY accompanied a pensioner to the job centre in Penryn when he needed to contact the DWP urgently.

I noticed that the office is a fraudster’s paradise, because all the telephones for use by those who are claiming or receiving benefits are in the open space area with no privacy whatsoever.

I asked whether there were facilities where claimants could make calls in a private office but was told that no such facilities exist.

Everyone and anyone can overhear conversations, including confidential information given over the telephones by those individuals who are required to give their personal details, including their bank account numbers which encourages dishonesty, as well as humiliating those unfortunate clients who have no alternative but to use the inadequate facilities which deny them the privacy to which they are entitled when using the services.

I do not know whether this problem is evident in other job centres throughout the UK, but if it is, it’s hardly surprising that fraud qualifies for the Queen’s Award to Industry.

Lomond Handley, Coronation Cottages, Budock Water

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