The forerunners of the Jobcentre Plus were the state-run
labour exchanges, originally the vision of
Winston Churchill,
President of the Board of Trade, and
William Beveridge, who had worked for a more efficient labour system in the early years of the twentieth century. This was intended to address the chaos of the labour market and the problems of casual employment. In 1908, Beveridge was commissioned to devise a scheme which would combine labour exchanges with a new government-funded
unemployment benefit. The
Labour Exchanges Act 1909 was rushed through
Parliament and was passed in September 1909 and, after months of planning and recruitment of clerks; 62 labour exchanges were opened on 1 February 1910. The number of offices rose to 430 within four years. At the suggestion of the
Prime Minister David Lloyd George, from January 1917, the labour exchanges came under the new
Ministry of Labour and were renamed employment exchanges, so as to more accurately reflect their purpose and function. The
National Insurance Act was passed in 1911 and the first payments were made at exchanges in January 1913. Initially this covered only elected trades, such as
building,
engineering and
shipbuilding. Weekly contributions were paid by workers, employers and the state in the form of stamps which were affixed to an Unemployment Book (later called the National Insurance card). When no work was available, benefit was payable. The basic rules and administration regarding claims and the disallowance of benefit remain unaltered today. From 1918, payments were also made to unemployed ex-soldiers and their dependants, as well as to civilians who found themselves unemployed due to the decline of war production industries. The out-of-work donation scheme (the original "
dole") was originally only a temporary measure. As
unemployment benefit was payable only for those with a contributions record, and even then for only twelve months for each claim, there remained a group on long-term low incomes, without access to benefit. That was relieved after the enactment of the
National Assistance Act 1948 (
11 & 12 Geo. 6. c. 29), when payments began to be made to jobseekers on low incomes regardless of contributions. Initially, benefits were paid weekly in cash, at the employment exchange. From 1973, the-then
Department of Employment began to open a new network of 'Jobcentres', with orange signage (re-branded 'Employment Service Jobcentre', with dark blue signage, from 1994 to 2002) that advertised jobs but did not process benefits. During this time, claimants were required to make claims and 'sign on' at separate unemployment benefit offices. With the introduction of the
Employment Service in the mid-1990s, the unemployment benefit offices were integrated into Jobcentres. From the 1970s onwards, benefits were paid in the form of a
girocheque, until the early-2000s, when payments would be made directly to the claimant's bank account. The first 56 Jobcentre Plus Pathfinder offices were brought into existence during October 2001. As part of the
Efficiency Savings Programme of 2004, changes were made to the structure and management of Jobcentre Plus as part of the governmental review headed by
Sir Peter Gershon and
Sir Michael Lyons to increase departmental efficiency amounting to £960 million; a target considered achievable in the period 2007–08. This initial plan was implemented within the Jobcentre structure as the
Delivering our Vision Programme. Between 2005 and 2008, directors of the board were to be reduced in number from eight to six, the number of districts from seventy to fifty, the number of management and support staff employed were reduced by 5% and, amongst other things, the number of locations specifically employed to process claims would be reduced from 650 to 77. In the 1990s, the Jobcentre enforced a dress code which required male members of staff to wear ties. The code was later held to be in breach of the
Sex Discrimination Act 1975. ==Organisation==