A COMMITTEE of MPs has called on the UK Government to investigate whether private companies running its employment programmes are deliberately not referring hard to help people to charities.
Westminster’s Public Accounts Committee has published a damning report into the UK’s Work Programme claiming it is failing unemployed people, particularly young people and those with disabilities.
The committee fears that people with the least skills and experience are being dumped by the 18 private sector companies running the Work Programme, who are funded on a payment-by-results basis.
It claims there is evidence that the contractors, including two based in Scotland, are ‘creaming’ off people who are most likely to find work and ‘parking’ those whose employment prospects look worst.
Between June 2011 and July 2012, only 3.6% of people referred to the Work Programme moved off benefit and into work, less than a third of the target of 11.9%.
The performance was so poor that it was actually worse than the government’s own expectations of the number of people who would have found work if the programme didn’t exist
Labour’s Margaret Hodge MP, chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, said: “None of the providers managed to meet their minimum performance targets. The best performing provider only moved 5% of people off benefit and into work, while the worst managed just 2%.
“The Programme is particularly failing young people and the hardest-to-help.”
She added: “The difference between actual and expected performance is greatest for those claimants considered the hardest to help, including in particular claimants with disabilities.
“The department’s own evaluation suggests that these claimants have been receiving a poor service from providers. Creaming and parking are clear policy concerns which we share with the department.
“Despite assurances that it would do so, the department has not provided the further analysis which would demonstrate whether or not creaming and parking was taking place.”
Prime contractors are able to subcontract support for people with barriers to employment to other agencies, including charities.
Research from the Third Sector Research Centre last week, however, revealed that charities are receiving few or no referrals. As a result, some charities have had to withdraw from the programme.
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is funded by the Scottish Government to run Community Jobs Scotland, which provides six-month jobs for young people in Scottish charities. An evaluation has shown that 40% find employment.
Donna Mackinnon, director of employment services at SCVO, said that it had refused to take on Work Programme subcontracts.
“The Work Programme is not helping unemployed people and it is not helping the third sector,” she said.
“Through welfare reforms, this government is stripping 20 per cent off the amount it spends on disability benefit by reassessing people as fit for work. It is a disgrace that these people are then being dumped by the Work Programme as too difficult to help.
“There is a wealth of expertise in Scotland’s third sector that could be used to help people develop the skills and confidence they need to successfully find work.
“But instead of investing in charities and in people who want to work but need help to do so, the government is pouring billions of UK taxpayer’s money down the drain.”
She called on the UK Government to scrap the Work Programme.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “The Work Programme gives support to claimants for two years and it hasn’t even been running that long yet, so it’s still early days. We know the performance of our providers is improving.
“Previous schemes paid out too much up front regardless of success, but by paying providers for delivering results, the Work Programme is actually offering the taxpayer real value for money.”
