United Kingdom Home Office Public Servants working on asylum cases are being offered thousands of pounds in bonuses to stay in their jobs as part of efforts to get a grip on a backlog of more than 127,000 cases.
Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, Matthew Rycroft said the allowance —£1,500 ($A2,689) if staff stay for one year and £2,500 ($A4,482) if they remain for two — was doubling asylum case-worker retention rates.
However, the backlog of unprocessed asylum applications had continued to grow despite efforts to retain staff and the recruiting of hundreds of new case-workers, as productivity levels have slumped.
Media reports claimed the Department had been recruiting inexperienced people, who were not given enough support.
They earned low wages, were asked to make difficult decisions and did not stay in their roles for long.
Mr Rycroft (pictured) and Minister for the Home Office, Suella Braverman outlined the Department’s efforts to tackle the huge backlog at a Parliamentary Select Committee on Home Affairs.
Ms Braverman told the committee that the number of asylum case-workers had been increased from 597 in 2019-20 to more than 1,000 today to address the backlog.
She said the Department expected to recruit 500 more by March, although around 200 staff were expected to leave by then.
Despite almost doubling staff numbers in the past two years, productivity levels have sunk and the average asylum application currently takes 450 days to process.
Ms Braverman said she could not put a date on when the backlog would be resolved, but said the Home Office was aiming for case-workers to reach three decisions per week by May 2023 and four decisions per week at some point.
An inspection of asylum case-work by the independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration stated the reasons for poor processing included the use of Excel spreadsheets to track a large number of cases, a shortage of technical specialist staff, inadequate training, low morale and high turnover.
Media reports claimed low paid staff were being hired to handle applications, with many leaving quickly under the pressure.
One report said recruits coming from customer services sales positions at McDonald’s, Tesco and Aldi, were being given two days training and had been using Lonely Planet guides to get information on countries before making decisions.
London, 26 November 2022
