Throughout 2022, our new social security service will create 2,000 new jobs to help deliver benefits across Scotland.
With our Social Security Scotland head office based in Dundee, many of these roles will be available to people who live within the city and surrounding areas.
I’m proud that my home city will play a key role in helping to deliver Scotland’s major new public service.
This will contribute to the city’s ongoing regeneration by creating jobs and attracting more people into the heart of Dundee.
Social Security Scotland also has a major site in Glasgow city centre and has representation in every local authority across Scotland.
By autumn 2022, the organisation will directly employ more than 3,500 people.
We estimate that these jobs will directly support around £280 million in gross value add to the Scottish economy.
Local jobs and support for local suppliers
We are providing people in Dundee and surrounding areas with secure, long-term employment in a workforce that truly represents the diversity of modern Scotland.
We want our workforce to reflect the people we are here to serve and are actively seeking applicants from groups currently underrepresented in the public sector.
That includes people who have been out of employment for some time and those with lived experience of the benefits system.
When we say we are delivering our social security service with dignity, fairness and respect, this isn’t exclusive to the experience of people who use our system.
We apply this equally to the people and organisations who work for and with Social Security Scotland.
🎥 2000 staff are being recruited in Dundee and Glasgow to help deliver new benefits in Scotland
🗣@nicolasturgeon visited the new Social Security Scotland HQ this morning pic.twitter.com/lSTLjGpqkg
— Radio Tay News (@RadioTayNews) September 29, 2021
We made the choice to buy goods and services from local Supported Businesses.
These are enterprises providing training and employment for people who may otherwise find it difficult to secure employment, or who have challenges adjusting to the workplace after, for example, serving in the armed forces, or having a disability.
Breaking down the stigma around benefits in Scotland
For too long there has been a stigma attached to accessing benefits and we want to remove that.
Great care has been taken to ensure our head office is in a central, visible location, served by a range of transport options, and is fully accessible for visitors.
Once interior fit-out works are completed and it is safe to do so, there will be a dedicated area in the building available to provide face-to-face services and support to clients.
We want people to feel welcome the minute they step through the door.
This is all part of the work we are doing to deliver a markedly different social security system and through doing so, minimise the stigma and stress people have traditionally said they have felt when accessing benefits.
Our new social security system is an investment in ourselves and each other and is helping to alleviate poverty and support disabled people.
Any of us could need support if our circumstances change. The tremendous impact of the pandemic on many people’s finances has taught us that.
As we continue to grow our presence in the city, we are building a service that people of Dundee, and across Scotland, can be proud of now and in the future.
Shona Robison is Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, and the MSP for Dundee East.
