King's Lynn and Thetford's job centres will both move under plans unveiled by the government.

King's Lynn and Thetford's job centres will both move under plans unveiled by the government.

The shake up will also see back office staff in Norwich move from St Mary's House to Kingfisher House under proposals announced by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Officials said there was not an exact timescale yet, but the move would happen before the end of March next year.

Union officials said nationally more than one in 10 jobcentres in England, Wales and Scotland will shut, putting thousands of staff jobs at risk. But the Department for Work and Pensions said it expected affected employees to move to other sites, insisting thenumber of redundancies would be 'very small'.

The Lovell House job centre on St Nicholas Street in King's Lynn will move its services around the corner to the Chapel Street. In Thetford the Townsend House job centre on Guildhall Street will close and services will be moved to the Breckland Business Centre.

The government said the way DWP services are delivered has changed significantly in recent years with eight out of 10 claims for Jobseeker's Allowance and 99.6pc of applicants for Universal Credit now submitting their claims online.

The government said job centres and benefit centres were covered by old building contracts which were coming up for renewal and that it was also on a recruitment drive to hire 2,500 new work coaches.

Employment Minister Damian Hinds said: 'The way the world works has changed rapidly in the last 20 years and the welfare state needs to keep pace. As more people access their benefits through the internet, many of our buildings are under-used. We are concentrating our resources on what we know best helps people into work.'

But the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said thousands of jobs will be put at risk, and unemployed people will have to travel further for help in finding work. Should the job centre move? Email edpletters@archant.co.uk