Secretary of State in Somerton
Secretary of State Ian Duncan-Smith paid a visit Somerton today at the invitation of David Warburton (Conservative candidate for Somerton and Frome) to hear more about the work of the Somerton Jobs Club at the Somerton Methodist Church. Ivor Dixon who runs the job clubs introduced the Secretary of State to some of the job centre users to hear at first hand of the problems they face dealing with and accessing the job centre. Mr Duncan-Smith was told about the problems of signing on in a rural community where the nearest job centre was in Yeovil 14 miles away. Although the sterling work of the job clubs in both Langport and Somerton has been a great help, Mr Duncan-Smith explained that actually the individual job centres have devolved funding which they can use to address precisely this sort of issue. He told us “there is a Flexible Support Fund which is precisely to help with this sort of issue. Sometimes people in isolated areas do need to get a better service, but we have to be told about it.”