Brownall House Job Centre manager Trish struggles to keep things running smoothly. She has a world-of-work seminar to run, the temp is late, and difficult employee Angela returns, fresh from winning a tribunal. Karl is the only staff Trish can rely on, but now even he's reached the end of his tether.

Trish attempts to boost Brownall Job Centre’s figures by calling in the army. Sergeant Steve Fox finds himself on the receiving end of a very different kind of interest though. George goes undercover to try and trap a man who’s signing on and working as a decorator, but things don’t quite go to plan.

Following the sudden closure of a local factory, the job centre is inundated with newly unemployed jobseekers. With everyone working flat out, Trish is forced to help but she struggles with the computer and reveals a shocking, somewhat disturbing, secret.

The job centre is due to be inspected, and Trish is on the lookout for the mystery shopper - or secret jobseeker - who is going to file a report. Nobody else seems to care, apart from security guard Janette who harbours an irrational hatred of the Great Barr branch and is determined to beat them in the job centre league table. Karl is more interested in working with George - they are going to interrogate a pair of big-time benefit cheats together, but they both want to be the bad cop.

Trish is conducting staff appraisals and Danielle is feeling the pressure, while Angela is in an unusually good mood. When the reason for her cheerfulness comes to light, George suspects that she is not telling the whole truth and seeks revenge. Karl arrives for work with a spring in his step - he has finally got a girlfriend. Then he discovers that she signs on at the job centre - where relationships between staff and jobseekers are against the rules.

Trish gets a life-changing surprise on her birthday - or so she thinks. Needing time to think it through, she promotes Karl to acting manager, but Karl's fears that nobody will listen to him prove correct. With Trish out of the way, Paul takes the chance to expand his carpet-fitting business, while Danielle just stops working altogether. Karl is totally out of his depth and things get a whole lot worse when a jobseeker decides to stage a protest.