Jobcentre vans will park up outside football matches, mosques and in retail parks across areas with high unemployment, as part of a drive to reduce the number of people out of work.
The vans, dubbed mobile jobcentres, are being tested as an “inclusive and accessible” way to encourage people into work, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
A match day at Bolton Wanderers Football Club is among the locations a DWP van has recently pitched up.
The Greater Manchester town is one of several areas with higher than the national average of unemployment where the vans are being tested.
Getting more people back into work is a key part of our Plan for Change to deliver economic growth
The DWP also pointed to mosques, retail parks and community centres as locations which have been targeted by the mobile jobcentres.
The vans are also touring Flintshire, Denbighshire and Wrexham, in north Wales, and another will soon be launched in Scotland covering Moray and the Highlands, according to the DWP.
Employment minister Alison McGovern said the Government wanted to “see everyone, in every corner of the country, become better off” by being offered the opportunity of a “good job”, as she joined the Bolton mobile jobcentre outside a children’s centre on Monday.
“This mobile jobcentre is a perfect example of an inclusive and accessible DWP solution that ensures no one misses out on the job support they deserve,” Ms McGovern added.
“Getting more people back into work is a key part of our Plan for Change to deliver economic growth, create better opportunities and put more money into the pockets of working people.”
Ministers are seeking to bring down the number of working age people who are out of work as a means of cutting the benefits bill.
Some 2.8 million people are out of work due to long-term sickness, rising from two million before the pandemic, according to Government figures.
Alongside efforts aimed to encouraging more people into work, like the jobcentre vans, ministers are believed to be considering tougher conditions for benefits payments.
