After arriving home late last night, I was not quite as fast as usual to get out of bed! After a stint in the office I headed to Weymouth to visit the job centre near ASDA. After being signed in by one of the charming security staff, I met James Pidgeon, the business development manager, Amanda Buttle, customer service leader, Adele Blaker, customer service manager, and Martin Matthews, the schools adviser, who I'd met before. After a most illuminating chat with the four of them about their role, Universal Credit (UC), and a range of other matters, I was so encouraged to hear them all say that UC was a marked improvement on what went before, was flexible, liked by its users and WAS encouraging people back to work. When you hear all the rubbish spoken about UC outside this jobcentre where they are actually dealing with it, you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd come to another planet. About 45 staff work here and in Bridport, which is open on Mondays and Fridays. The range of rolls they all have is quite staggering. All of them are enabling, supportive and in some cases hand-holding, as those unaccustomed to writing a CV are helped to do so. Many of the staff have been there for more than 20 years and they say the change from then to today is a dramatic improvement. I really enjoyed meeting as many as I did. All of them charming and dedicated to helping others. The open-plan layout gave the office a spacious, friendly feel, in addition to the superb Christmas decorations. I spent about two most enjoyable hours there. The delightful Tanya Reed-Balderson kindly gave me 30 minutes of her time, explaining what she did and how. Her life experience alone came through so strongly, quite apart from the many years in the office, and she is no doubt superb at her job and clearly enjoys it. Martin Matthews enthused about his role as schools adviser and has done an impressive amount to get into schools and colleges to offer students advice and help on a career. I came away absolutely inspired by this impressive and dedicated team. Back to the office for a short while and then down to the pub to thank my home team for another year. It was a fun evening.