Yet more job losses to the city

i no its dated November 2010 but there's a 18 month time line in which these jobs could go and its looking as if its going go this way as now we have a labour controlled council and that's says it all going by the passed couple of months t j Hughes carpet right when will this stop when will we get proper sustainable jobs that people can go out and earn a decent wage just like we used to be able to

400 jobs at risk as Royal Mail considers shutting customer service base

Friday, November 12, 2010

This is Staffordshire

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HUNDREDS of jobs are under threat in Stoke-on-Trent as Royal Mail reviews its customer service operations.

Union leaders claim Royal Mail wants to shut its Etruria centre with the loss of 400 positions over the next 18 months.

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   Lee Barron, Midlands regional secretary at the Communication Workers' Union.

It follows Royal Mail's decision to transfer 700 jobs out of the region by shutting sorting offices in Stoke and Crewe in the past year.

Now a campaign is underway to try to save the Royal Mail call centre from closure.

Royal Mail today confirmed it is reviewing its customer services facilities across the country. It adds that no decision has been made about the Etruria property.

But Lee Barron, pictured below, Midlands regional secretary at the Communication Workers' Union (CWU), says employees have been told verbally that the centre will close in 12 to 18 months.

Mr Barron said: "We want to know if Royal Mail has some sort of vendetta against jobs in Stoke-on-Trent.

"Over the last decade, 800 to 1,000 jobs have been taken out of Stoke-on-Trent by Royal Mail and now it wants to get rid of another 400. We say enough's enough.

"We have to keep the Stoke-on-Trent customer resource open for the local community, the local economy and local jobs."

During the day, the Media Way premises are used by customer care staff to answer telephone calls and correspondence and to work on sales and promotional campaigns.

From 5.30pm, Royal Mail data entry workers use the building to decipher addresses which cannot be read by mail machines.

Mr Barron added: "The Etruria site has capacity for growth so Royal Mail should be looking at bringing more work here."

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We are currently reviewing customer services accommodation across the country and have been keeping our team at Stoke-on-Trent informed.

"No decisions have been made about the outcome of the review and certainly the information we have provided should not be interpreted to indicate the closure of the centre in 12 to 18 months' time."

North Staffordshire's Labour MPs are backing the CWU campaign to keep Etruria open and are lobbying the business community for support.

Earlier this week Stoke-on-Trent Central MP Tristram Hunt, whose constituency covers Etruria, asked the Government if it had assessed the possible impact on Stoke-on-Trent of Royal Mail's restructuring, only to be told it was "an operational matter for Royal Mail".

Mr Hunt said today: "I will pressure the Government to consider the harm this could do."

Benefit shake up this is what's going to happen soon in stoke on Trent

I no its dated July but still this is coming to our once great city and its not just unemployed that's are going get hit its disability and pensioners losing there weather payments bus passes and what are labour going do nothing  apart from lie and deceit the British public but what will people keep doing voting labour and conservatives

Benefits shake-up 'will damage city'

Saturday, July 30, 2011

The Sentinel

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CHARITY bosses say Government welfare reforms will take millions of pounds out of Stoke-on-Trent's economy and increase homelessness.

Stoke-on-Trent Citizens' Advice Bureau and Hanley-based Brighter Futures have issued a joint report on the impact that cuts to benefits will have on people living in the city.

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They say cuts to employment and support allowance (ESA) alone will take at least £13 million each year out of the local economy.

And the report predicts that changes to housing benefit will lead to increased homelessness and a reduction in the number of private landlords in the area.

Gill Brown, chief executive of Brighter Futures, said: "The proposals to change housing benefit are designed to solve problems in London and the south east.

"Housing conditions in those areas are completely different to those here and the effect of imposing these cuts on Stoke-on-Trent will be to make many people homeless and to make it difficult for organisations like Brighter Futures to offer the individually tailored packages of care that we design to help people cope with the effects of mental health problems, addictions or criminal behaviour."

Simon Harris, chief executive of Stoke-on-Trent CAB, said: "Often, people currently dependent on welfare benefits could be helped back into work by the regeneration strategies of central and local government.

"We fully support these efforts to create new local jobs. However, we recognise that they will not create instant jobs and we believe that, even for those who can be helped into work, they need a decent benefits system meanwhile."

Figures in the report show 10 per cent of all people aged between 16 and 64 in Stoke-on-Trent are unemployed.

A total of 33,500 people of working age are receiving benefits in the city, which is 22.7 per cent of the local population.

Of these 10,392 are either receiving Job Seeker's Allowance, or are single parents who do not need to be available for work. The remaining 23,108 are unable to work because of illness or disability.

The report says the proportion of people receiving either ESA or incapacity benefit in Stoke-on-Trent is almost twice the national rate.

The city currently has 14,000 people claiming incapacity benefit, who will all be reassessed.

The charities say that half of local people could lose some of their benefits after being reassessed, resulting in an average loss of £28 a week.

The report says: "This change could double the number of unemployed people seeking work.

"The impact of these cuts will fall disproportionately on Stoke-on-Trent as we have a disproportionately high number of people claiming incapacity benefit."

Proposals to change the benefit system also include introducing a maximum local housing allowance rate people can receive of £146.54 a week.

In the past people could claim £219.23 a week for a five-bedroom house.

The report says: "The introduction of this cap to LHA could result in unexpectedly large numbers of people becoming homeless or getting into rent arrears.

"As a result more people will turn to the council for help."

Tristram Hunt, Stoke-on-Trent Central MP, pictured left, said the changes to the benefit system could be the equivalent of a large local employer closing down and would hit businesses in the city hard.

He said: "The changes attempt to impose a single 'one size fits all' solution on towns and cities which are facing starkly different economic challenges.

"This means that in a city like Stoke-on-Trent they will represent a false economy and will give at best only short term savings to the public purse and reduce economic activity."