Student Loans Company To Cut 150 Jobs

Fri, 29 Jan 2010

The Student Loans Company (SLC) has announced that 150 jobs have been axed at two of its Scottish offices.

The SLC, which is responsible for administering student loans and grants throughout the UK, said the majority of the redundancies will be from its Glasgow and Hillington sites, and added that a further 45 positions will be moved from Hillington to its base in Darlington.

In a statement, the organisation confirmed that it had started a consultation process with staff over restructuring following the completion of a major programme to move its financial support application process online.

"This move is centred on delivering an improved customer experience and allows for a reduction in resources within the company," the company said.

SLC chief executive Ralph Jackson said the company was "sorry" for the 150 job cuts from its Scottish workforce.

"I want to reassure our customers that these changes will not affect front-line staff and we will continue to make the improvements needed to deliver a better quality of service to them in the future," he added.

The move has come under fire from the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), which represents SLC employees.

Colin Young, secretary of the PCS, said: "This announcement is a body blow to the hard-working staff in the SLC and to the city of Glasgow, which can ill-afford to lose well-paid, highly skilled jobs ."

"It is an extra kick in the teeth when you realise that 45 of these jobs are being transferred from Glasgow to England at no savings to the taxpayer."

The SLC was launched in 1990 when the loan system was introduced for university and college students . It employs 1,894 people across the UK, including 1,212 in Glasgow .
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