Staff at the Student Loans Company (SLC) at Lingfield Point are said to be turning to foodbanks as they struggle to cope with declining working conditions there.

A litany of concerns, including a perceived lack of security, low wages and pay disparities, poor training, ineffective management, increasing workloads, unrealistic targets, systems not fit for purpose and health and safety concerns, have been raised by staff, to the Northern Echo and on recruitment sites Indeed.co.uk and glassdoor, which compiles workplace reviews.

High levels of stress and related absences are noted, while some reviewers say there is a high turnover of staff, with one manager said to have given up the job to work in Greggs.

With only 30 per cent of staff saying they would recommend working there to a friend on the glassdoor website, the SLC ranks as the worst public sector place to work in the UK.

One former employee, who worked for SLC in Darlington for several years before leaving recently, urged the company to act quickly to retain hardworking staff, saying conditions had plummeted during her time there.

She said: “The staff are trying their best, but there are so many obstacles in their way and it is difficult for them to do a decent job.

“They’ve been asking for a pay-rise for years and the bonus system has been changed, making it impossible to get one.

“There are people working there full-time who have had to turn to foodbanks and there are a lot of people absent because of stress, depression and mental health problems.

“It is a complex job and it can change suddenly with any new ruling, staff are also dealing with distressed students on a daily basis whose money has not arrived or who have had their finance withdrawn.

“There’s pressure to meet targets and staff are asked to do so much that there are mistakes being made - but it’s not the fault of the employees.

“They say they are going to make improvements, but nothing seems to be changing.”

Morale is at an all-time low and the troubled organisation is “haemorrhaging staff”, according to employees and former workers at the SLC, which also has offices in Glasgow and Llandudno Junction.

One ex-worker said the Public and Commercial Services Union had repeatedly begged the company to improve conditions for staff and to implement pay rises over and above one per cent a year.

A union spokesman said: “We are aware of concerns expressed by staff about a general lack of direction and leadership and the union has discussed the low morale of staff with management on a number of occasions. We know staff are also concerned about low pay in comparison to other public sector workers."

The SLC has faced criticism on a number of occasions in recent years, including after the suspension of chief executive Steve Lamey in July, after just a year in the role for reasons that were not publicly disclosed.

In September, shadow universities minister Gordon Marsden called for an urgent inquiry into problems at the SLC and said the firm was approaching “meltdown”.

He highlighted “inadequacies of the SLC to properly administer student loans and specifically repayments” after figures showed a rise in the amount of people overpaying their debts to the company, from 52,000 in 2009/10 to 86,000 in 2015/16.

Previous staff complaints relating to SLC’s Darlington office include when in July 2015 two agency workers reported losing their jobs after alleging they had been sexually harassed in the workplace.

The SLC has had an office in Darlington since 2006 where staff help to process around 1.4m applications for student finance a year.

A spokesman for the SLC said the organisation recognised the need for a “change in culture” and said work was being done to improve conditions for workers.

He added: “A number of initiatives to improve Organisational Health have recently been launched and we will track their progress through formal regular employee engagement surveys, as well as monitoring external sites such as Glassdoor and Indeed.

"SLC’s 2020 Strategy recognises the need for a change in culture along with new ways of working to make SLC a better place to work. A number of

initiatives to improve Organisational Health have recently been launched and we will track their progress through formal regular employee engagement

surveys, as well as monitoring external sites such as Glassdoor and Indeed.

"We are satisfied that the practices we have in place to handle mail are robust, safe and secure for employees and customers' documents.

"All staff undertake annual mandatory training to ensure that they know and understand their responsibilities around security and health and safety.

As a responsible employer we encourage staff to discuss any matter which may concern them with their manager and additional support is available

24/7 via an independent Employee Assistance Helpline."