Work Programme may fall short of Government’s estimates
The National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed that the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) newly introduced Work Programme is not likely to meet Government estimates.
The Programme, which replaces virtually all of the existing ‘welfare to work’ schemes, includes innovations designed to tackle weaknesses and tie providers’ earnings to performance. Providers will receive higher rewards for supporting harder to help claimant groups into work and are paid partly out of the benefit savings they help to generate.
However the DWP’s assumptions about the feasibility of the Programme might be over-optimistic. The Department estimated 40 per cent of the largest group of job seekers in the Programme will get jobs but the NAO’s analysis suggests that number will only reach 26 per cent.
Some contractors in areas of high unemployment may struggle to meet nationally set targets and may face serious financial difficulty during the term of the contracts.
The report also points out that no alternatives to the Programme were considered as part of the business case, nor was it piloted to test assumptions.
Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said: “The Department has set providers stretching performance targets and it needs to ensure that they do not cut corners to stay in profit, such as targeting easy to reach people, reducing service levels or treating sub-contractors unfairly.”
It has so far cost £63m to terminate existing welfare to work contracts.
Click here for the NAO report.
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