Benton Park View
| Benton Park View | |
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 Benton Park View
 Benton Park View shown within Tyne and Wear |
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| OS grid reference | NZ264681 |
| Coordinates | 55°00′25″N 1°35′20″W / 55.007°N 1.589°WCoordinates: 55°00′25″N 1°35′20″W / 55.007°N 1.589°W |
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Benton Park View, located in High Heaton, a suburb of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, is a multi-agency site of the UK Government. The complex is one of the largest secure civilian government complexes in Europe. The site is owned by Newcastle Estates Partnership and the principal tenants are Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The site consists of a large group of office blocks within a secure perimeter.
The official name of the site is "Benton Park View", but it is widely referred to simply as "Longbenton" or, especially in Newcastle, as "The Ministry", after its original purpose as the administrative centre for the Ministry of Pensions (later the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance).
The site is well served by public transport. The nearest stop on the Tyne and Wear Metro system is Longbenton, which also serves the nearby suburb in North Tyneside (north of the railway line) called 'Longbenton', and a station at Four Lane Ends is located a short distance away. Both stations are served by trains on the Yellow Line service of the Metro and a number of special bus services to bring workers from outlying areas.
The principal function of the site was originally to administer the UK’s system of retirement and widows’ pensions, along with the system of National Insurance that raises contributions from both employers and employees for the purpose of financing those (and other) benefits of the British social welfare system. These functions had been handled in the past by the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS), the Department of Social Security (DSS) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) before transfer of the contributions aspect to HMRC.
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