Stalking, threats and throwing stuff about – all part of working at Social Security…

Friday 18 September 2015

Social Security staff have been stalked, threatened and been sent abusive letters by angry benefit claimants over the last two years.

The department has had to set up an “Acceptable Behaviour Group” to monitor behaviour of clients and the safety of employees, and have designated 48 troublemakers as a “Potentially Violent Person”.

The incidents recorded since the start of 2014 are:

- 37 incidents of verbal abuse.

- 12 of verbal abuse “and other” (including throwing items).

- 12 of threatening staff.

- Three of stalking.

- Three of inappropriate behaviour (including being drunk).

- One abusive letter.

The figures were released in response to a Freedom of Information Law request that also confirmed that the police have received 136 calls from staff at the department since 2009 – well over one per month.

The report also makes it clear that the vast majority of interactions between members of the public going into the department at La Motte Street are completely peaceful – in 2014, there were around 350,000 “customer interactions”, of which 42 were reported to the Acceptable Behaviour Group, which works out as a percentage of 0.012%.

So far this year 26 incidents have been reported to the group.