Benefits website Single parent help analysed 180 Jobcentres across England, Scotland and Wales this month. It included offices with at least 30 Google reviews and calculated each average from the full breakdown of star ratings.

Oldham’s recent average of 1.64 was the lowest among the 10 offices at the bottom of the overall ranking. “Ironically the worst place to go if you need a job,” one reviewer wrote in January.

Harrow and Darlington were joint lowest overall, each averaging two stars. At the other end of the table, Laurieston Jobcentre in Glasgow had the highest average at 3.98 stars. No office in the analysis reached four stars.

Greater Manchester had an office near each end of the ranking. Gorton Hub Jobcentre placed second highest in Britain, averaging 3.86 stars from 43 reviews.

The 10 lowest-rated offices in the analysis were:

  1. Harrow

  2. Darlington

  3. Great Yarmouth

  4. Redhill

  5. Brent, Neasden Lane

  6. Wolverhampton

  7. Portsmouth

  8. Oldham

  9. Settles Street, Whitechapel

  10. Fulham

The 10 highest-rated offices were:

  1. Laurieston, Glasgow

  2. Gorton Hub, Manchester

  3. Duke Street, Liverpool

  4. Forest Road, Walthamstow

  5. Skegness

  6. King’s Lynn

  7. Palmers Green

  8. Wandsworth

  9. Barnet

  10. Oxford

Single parent help said exact averages determined the order where the displayed scores were the same. Offices with identical exact averages shared a place. Northern Ireland was excluded because its Jobs and Benefits offices are run separately.

Dawn Yates, a benefits expert at Single parent help, said: “Nobody goes to a Jobcentre for fun, so the least people should expect is to be seen on time and treated with respect, especially when they’ve got a baby or a toddler with them.”

The organisation released the analysis ahead of the planned merger of Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service in England on 1 October. Yates advised people whose appointments clash with school or childcare arrangements to message their work coach through their Universal Credit journal before the appointment and keep a copy.

Google ratings reflect reviews left by a relatively small number of users at each office. They do not establish how all claimants were treated or provide an official measure of Jobcentre performance.