Us born Janet Grossman, newly appointed head of WINZ was previously employed to slash 60 billion pounds off welfare expenditure in the UK, as the chief operating officer of the Department of Work and Pensions. It looks like she's been head hunted to do the same job here. Her main tactic was to decimate Job Centre staff levels; replacing human interaction with technology such as the use of call centres and the internet. Despite large numbers of applicants for benefits having enormous problems getting through on the phone (often giving up), or being able to afford the expensive phone calls or to understand the complex forms ; Janet Grossman's methods have been considered a success because they have saved the department large sums of money. Those with disabilities and carers were among the worst served and the most neglected.Here's a quote from a British parliamentary committee of 2006 before which Ms Grossman appeared:
"...let us congratulate Ms Grossman, shall we - if we read her CV we see that: "Under Janet's leadership, the Pension Service operations have improved efficiency and customer service, reducing staff numbers by 26% whilst improving service levels in the last 18 months". She has done a fantastic job and I pay tribute to her. When we need to summon you back in a couple of years' time, which I will obviously do, will you be able to tell us that Ms Grossman has been promoted and received a pay rise but those responsible for a lagging performance elsewhere have been sacked and moved on?" http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmpubacc/uc1034-i/uc103402.htm The transcript is hilarious, especially the cross questioning by one Austin Mitchell, Labour MP for Grimsby (of Quarter-acre-Pavlova Paradise fame) who asks are the customers told midway thru their phone call how much it is costing them? That was 2006, so its likely she has turned 100s of jobcentres into callcentres to get people to chase jobs over the phone or online (services contracted to the private sector).
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