As a jobcentre work coach, I am tasked with moving jobseekers (those on health-related benefits or income support) into employment. It is my job to interview people and help identify the barriers stopping them from working. We then agree how they can be overcome.

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Those barriers might be relatively simple. Someone might need to be taught how to produce a CV or they might need help with their computer skills. Some of the people I interview have not been in employment for many years and lack the motivation or skills to return to work.

Work coaches will discuss the appropriate next steps, which may include a referral to a specialist partner organisation. This can involve a great deal of phone calls and form-filling. Marion, for example, wanted to improve her employability skills so we consulted and discussed a spreadsheet of available courses and completed the relevant application online. You would be quite correct to assume that this all takes time.

These interviews used to range from 10 minutes to an hour, depending on whether the person needed intensive support or is seen to be self-sufficient. It is the work coaches who were – and still are – best placed to decide how long the interview should be. Alarmingly, that decision is now in the hands of our managers, who know nothing about the jobseekers’ needs. Interviews are now limited to either 10 or 20 minutes, and 10-minute interviews are arranged back to back. Jobseekers may have travelled a considerable distance to attend these interviews, and many are left waiting while appointments overrun and we desperately try to provide what little help we can.

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Very little can be achieved within a 10-minute timeframe. We have to recap the previous interview, discuss the jobseeker’s progress and the update several IT systems. Often, even 20 minutes is far from sufficient to adequately support people with what are often multiple and complex barriers to work. Paul, for example, is autistic and needs much more time and support to help him express himself. When I take the initiative and schedule a longer interview for a jobseeker in need, I am asked to reduce it to allow diary space for other 10-minute appointments.

The management direction is to “tick and turn”. This means we’re encouraged just to go through the motions and not waste time. However, myself and my colleagues are assessed on how many jobseekers we move into employment. Our main target this year is quality. How can that be achieved in 10 minutes?

The problem has been exacerbated by a shortage of work coaches, and the resulting lack of available diary space to see our clients. This hasn’t been helped by the roll out of universal credit. Work coaches have been taken out of the office for training and often they are not replaced. This means that hard-pressed coaches need to fit additional people into their diaries. It is a regular occurrence that I am often unable to find space in my diary to book a work-focused interview and have to look to my colleague’s already busy diaries instead.

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The severe lack of work coach capacity will only be made more acute by the decision to close jobcentres in towns and cities across the UK. Jobseekers will be required to attend interviews in a place that is not local to them. They will need to travel greater distances to attend interviews that last less than 10 minutes and do not offer them much in the way of support. It’s even more unsustainable pressure on a badly creaking system.

Some names have been changed

This series aims to give a voice to the staff behind the public services that are hit by mounting cuts and rising demand, and so often denigrated by the press, politicians and public. If you would like to write an article for the series, contact kirstie.brewer@theguardian.com

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