Work Programme failing over 70% of claimants
21/10/2015
A committee of MP’s has found that almost 70% of people made to go through the governments welfare-to-work scheme are not successful in finding long term employment.
The £5 billion Work Programme, which was designed to help the long term unemployed find a job, is “not working well” for people with “complex problems”, according to the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee. The programme offers help and training to people on jobseekers allowance (JSA) and employment support allowance (ESA).
The committee has found that nearly 70% of people who had attended the programme for two years have failed to find sustained employment. The MP’s have suggested changes to the “complicated and less that effective” payments model that is currently in place. They also claimed that people with drug and alcohol addiction, illiteracy and innumeracy and the homeless should be better served.
The committee also believes there should be a separate, specialist scheme for people with “sustained disabilities”.
Committee chairman Frank Field said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) "deserves credit for implementing a programme which, in general, produces results at least as good as before, for a greatly reduced cost per participant".
But the Labour MP added: "We must not forget that nearly 70% of participants are completing the Work Programme without finding sustained employment. We must do much better."
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