Jobs threat at tax office
8:12am Saturday 5th July 2008
UP to 44 jobs could be lost if the government decides to close part of Dorchester's tax office.
The proposal has been condemned by union chiefs who say Dorchester was among 21 offices facing the axe across the South West including other sites at Bournemouth and Poole.
The Public and Commercial Services Union warned that the government's Revenue and Customs department was already suffering from a backlog of work and poor staff morale because of a drive to cut 25,000 jobs and close 200 offices.
The PCS said it feared that the latest proposals for more closures would just accelerate the loss of skilled and experienced staff and hit businesses and the public in rural towns and villages as well as taking quality jobs out of local communities.
Regional organiser Jessica Pearce said that up to 44 Dorchester jobs were under threat covering a whole range of tax-related tasks from tax returns to family tax credit and ensuring people were paying the correct amount of tax.
She added: "At the moment we are in an official consultation period until the beginning of August.
"We are currently in talks with the government's Revenue and Customs department which controls the Dorchester office in Vespasian House.
"Once that consultation period is over the department will take our views into account and either let the office stay open or confirm its closure.
"Unfortunately, the government seems set on its closure, but we will continue to fight to save it right up until the last day."
She also urged members of the public to help the campaign to save the Dorchester office by lobbying South Dorset MP Jim Knight and writing to the government.
Mr Knight said: "It is the taxpayer who pays for tax offices and the government has a responsibility to ensure best value for money.
"At the same time, particularly as more of us are having to complete self-assessment forms, there is a lot of value to having a tax office that people can access easily."