4 August 2016
Jobcentre Plus (JCP) worker caught making racist comments on the phone.
What: A single mother receives a voicemail message from a JCP worker that makes racist comments after the DWP civil servant failed to hang up the phone properly. The message captures a conversation between staff members who were unaware they were being recorded. The staff are heard criticising claimants with “foreign sounding” names and saying “I don’t, I just don’t, why are we running around for these people…some scrounging b*****d that’s popping out kids like pigs.”
Why significant: Evidence of hostility and racism as part of the dehumanisation of benefit claimants within jobcentres.
Citations
'Caught on tape: Job Centre worker leaves astonishing voicemail for single mother-of-three calling her 'a scrounging b*****d that's popping out children like pigs', Duell, 2016