The government’s beleaguered Work Programme has been plunged into uncertainty as bungling DWP ministers halved their estimate for how many people it will help. One million fewer people are expected to go through the scheme.
The news was forced out of Ministers following Labour questions – and is a dramatic u-turn on what ministers promised six months ago.
Ministers revised their predictions of the scheme’s size in December, encouraging back to work providers to take on hundreds of new advisers. But now the DWP has slammed the programme into reverse.
The news comes in a week when a range of economic forecasts warned of rising unemployment in the months ahead.
“Chaos is now engulfing the government’s flagship back to work scheme.
“Unemployment is at a 16 year high and yet welfare to work now appears to be in the hands of the Keystone Cops.
“The Work Programme is now so badly managed that we face the prospect of welfare to work staff being laid off in the middle of an unemployment emergency, as providers are forced to shed the staff they took on when they thought the government had the slightest idea what it was doing.
“Ministers have got into one almighty mess over their back to work programme and the result is there for all to see – a generation out of work and a government department totally unable to cope.”
Notes to Editors
- The DWP have placed in the House of Commons Library, following parliamentary questions from the Shadow Work and Pensions team, revised figures for the number of people being referred to the Work Programme.
- These figures show a huge 43% drop in the number of people being passed to providers for back-to-work help.
- This drop represents over 1,213,000 fewer people going through the Work Programme by 2015/16
December 2011
| Customer Group |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
2015/16 |
Total |
| JSA 18-24 |
141,000 |
111,000 |
73,000 |
60,000 |
385,000 |
| JSA 25+ |
344,000 |
370,000 |
300,000 |
263,000 |
1,277,000 |
| JSA Early Access |
59,000 |
52,000 |
47,000 |
43,000 |
201,000 |
| IB/IS (England only) |
13,000 |
13,000 |
0 |
0 |
26,000 |
| JSA Prison Leavers |
34,000 |
28,000 |
26,000 |
26,000 |
114,000 |
| TOTAL |
781,000 |
757,000 |
586,000 |
485,000 |
2,609,000 |
May 2012
| Customer Group |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
2015/16 |
Total |
| JSA 18-24 |
94,000 |
64,000 |
47,000 |
36,000 |
241,000 |
| JSA 25+ |
258,000 |
264,000 |
238,000 |
200,000 |
960,000 |
| JSA Early Access |
55,000 |
44,000 |
39,000 |
33,000 |
171,000 |
| IB/IS (England only) |
3,000 |
4,000 |
0 |
0 |
7,000 |
| JSA Prison Leavers |
31,000 |
28,000 |
26,000 |
26,000 |
111,000 |
| TOTAL |
441,000 |
403,000 |
350,000 |
294,000 |
1,488,000 |
Initial Projections
| Customer Group |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
2015/16 |
Total |
| JSA 18-24 |
77,000 |
65,000 |
58,000 |
54,000 |
254,000 |
| JSA 25+ |
252,000 |
231,000 |
206,000 |
190,000 |
879,000 |
| JSA Early Access |
39,000 |
36,000 |
36,000 |
34,000 |
145,000 |
| JSA Prison Leavers |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| IB/IS (England only) |
19,300 |
8,600 |
0 |
0 |
27,900 |
| Total |
589,300 |
526,600 |
402,000 |
339,000 |
1,856,900 |