Jobcentre Plus prevented an employer from recruiting 44 new staff by advertising the positions with the wrong company name and contact details.
Having sent the advert to a Glasgow job centre, MyVoucherCodes.co.uk was surprised to receive no applicants and once it realised the mistakes had been made, repeatedly tried to call the job centre to change the details but was offered “little assistance”.
The advert listed the company’s name and e-mail address incorrectly, and the 40 sales agent and four team leader positions were listed under ‘retail’ instead of ‘sales’.
The company said staff spent weeks trying to talk to someone at Jobcentre Plus to get the mistakes corrected.
Mark Pearson, managing director of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, said: “The reason we went to Jobcentre was because as a company we wanted to do everything we could to help those who, through no fault of their own, needed an opportunity to get back to work.
“The good news is that for those who could have missed out on this opportunity due to Jobcentre’s error, they can still send applications for this role.”
A spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “We work with thousands of employers, taking an average 10,000 new vacancies every working day. We always aim to provide a first class service and will investigate any allegation that we have listed a vacancy incorrectly.”
A recent survey of more than 3,000 employers, conducted by the British Chambers of Commerce, found only one in four use Jobcentres when recruiting.
Last week Personnel Today revealed Jobcentre Plus would recruit 4,000 more frontline staff to deal with the surge in applicants caused by the recession.
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[Extra line added Thursday 21 May]: The DWP has since told Personnel Today the jobcentre did contact Myvouchers.co.uk within 48 hours to amend incorrect details, and it continues to advertise positions for the firm.
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