This is taken from the website FullFact.org and reprinted for the benefit of those interested in the machinations of the Welfare to Work sector
Earlier this month during a session of Prime Ministers Questions, David Cameron was accused of giving MPs “misleading” information on help given by the last Government to get people back into work.
The figures in question dealt with how successful the Flexible New Deal (FND) had been in getting people into long-term jobs.
On 16 February, Mr Cameron told MPs: “Let me give the House of Commons the figures, because I think that they show what has been going wrong. Of the 279,000 people who took part in the flexible new deal, how many got a long-term job? The answer is 3,800. It is not good enough. What we have been doing on welfare, education and back-to-work programmes is not good enough. All those things need to change.”
But a fortnight later Labour MP Stephen Timms came to PMQs brandishing some House of Commons Library research which, he said, suggested the figures that were presented to the House by the PM were “misleading”.
Rather than wading into the finer points of the statistics at the time, the Prime Minister simply undertook to write to Mr Timms on the matter.
Full Fact was curious as to how this spat over the figures was resolved outside of the stormy atmosphere of Prime Minister's Questions, so we looked into what was happening behind the scenes.
The original House of Commons Library research, provided to us by Mr Timms' office, does take issue with the Prime Minister's comments in the way the East Ham MP suggested in the chamber.
The research states that the figures quoted by Mr Cameron only cover people in the FND from October 2009 to August 2010. The problem is not that they were inaccurate but that the time frame used had a significant impact on how the statistics appear.
Given the relatively short period of time involved, there would be a limit to how many people in the scheme could be recorded as being in jobs for more than six months.
As an accompanying note to the figures released by DWP explains explains: “Care should be taken when interpreting the relationship between starts and job outcomes as the series will naturally improve as a higher proportion of participants have been on the provision long enough to achieve a short and or a sustained outcome.”
This would mean that the PM's figures, though accurate, would not give as clear a picture as more up-to-date statistics would, and precisely this sort of new information was published on the morning Mr Cameron quoted the figures.
Normally Full Fact is more vexed by Ministers quoting data that has not yet been published, however in this case it seems Mr Cameron has failed to take into account the latest figures which showed the Flexible New Deal in a slightly better light.
Whereas the figures quoted by the PM showed 3,800 long-term jobs from 279,000 people participating in the FND - roughly 1.4 per cent - the later figures showed 13,970 long term jobs were produced from 329,410 FND starters - roughly 4.3 per cent, a much higher proportion.
In response the Prime Minister maintained that he had not used “misleading” statistics, but simply numbers “taken from DWP's latest quarterly statistical release, which contains data up to August 2010.”
Since the House of Commons research states that figures were published two and a half hours before the session of Prime Minister's Questions in dispute (16 February), it is not accurate to say the figure he cited were the latest.
Indeed this is a point made by Mr Timms replying to the Prime Minister's letter.
Conclusion
The debate will continue as to how effective the Flexible New Deal has proved, and will not be resolved by sorting out the accuracy of the Prime Minister's figures.
But on narrower issue of how the figures are used, it appears Mr Timms has a point. By not using the most up-to-date figures, the Prime Minister suggests a much smaller number of people had ended up in long-term jobs via the FND.
Since it was a case of the Prime Minister giving old, rather than wrong, figures, it seems unrealistic to expect the Prime Minister to correct the record.
However, now that he has very publicly been reminded that his figures are not the most recent, there would far less justification for continuing to use them, by the Prime Minister or anyone else.
Information
Anyone concerned about the likely changes in the Welfare Reform Bill may want to read a new paper by Gareth Morgan of Ferret Information Systems. The paper, Benefits And The Bill – The Future of Benefits after the Welfare Reform Bill, gives the April 2011 rates and rules as a starting point and looks at the effects of the new Bill and other announcements with a lot of example cases.
It demonstrates that it still take a couple of years to reach a steady-state income but also that there will now be some serious poverty traps in the system. For example people could be better of earning £15,000 than £25,000.
Read the full paper HERE
OPINION
1st March, 2011
A quick search through the blogosphere and political media soon reveals the broad attitude of journalists and general public to the welfare to work sector is perhaps not all it should be. Alex Barker, the Westminster correspondent for the Financial Times is typical of this and has been at the forefront of the attack. In a recent article discussing the sector he argued:
“Although it is too early to make a final judgement, at this point the welfare-to-work providers are falling well short of expectations. On average, they’re missing the government’s target by around 50 per cent. “
As if to make matters worse, his article painted a less than favourable prediction for the future of the Work Programme – “... the great hope for moving people off unemployment benefits — is likely to fare just as badly”.
The sector has, of late, not been helping itself as there have been a number of ‘bad news’ stories about the industry over recent weeks.
Take for example the case of A4e. The Sheffield-based company was recently fined £60,000 for losing an encrypted laptop with the details of approximately 24,000 people on the hard disk. The data breach occurred when the company issued the laptop to an employee to work at home, where it was stolen and unsuccessful attempts were made by the thieves to access the data. Personal details held on the machine included names, dates of birth, postcodes, information about alleged criminal activity and whether a person has been a victim of sexual abuse. .
Readers of this blog may also be intrigued to have read Pertemps were successful in entering the Sunday Times “Best company to work for” 2011 award – they came 4th this year, compared to 38th the year before.
The award might have come as something of a shock to Tim Watts, chairman of the Meriden-based Pertemps Group, who faces claims of sexual harassment, discrimination and victimisation from his former managing director Debbie Smith late last year. Her complaint was endorsed by Andrew Michie, the Brand Partnership Director and resulted in a prolonged employment tribunal hearing that first reared its head last October and reached its conclusion last month.
Pertemps will be anxiously awaiting the verdict of the tribunal, but will be grateful it will not affect their Sunday Times award.
Whether these are isolated issues, or part of a more endemic problem remains to be seen. What is clear is that if the sector wishes to present itself to the media and the public as a competent and legitimate part of the process supporting people back to work, then it needs to professionalise itself.
This should include the establishment of a professional association entirely independent of any provider, along with a formal accreditation process to enable full membership of the association. Ongoing licensing of practitioners could only then be maintained through rigorous continuing professional development.
News that POWER (the Professionalisation of Welfare to Work Expert Reference Group),will be reporting back to ERSA members at the next All-Members meeting should be welcomed, but soon it will become the responsibility of individual members and not providers to take over the leadership role. Training departments will have a core role to play in bringing this about and will need to encourage active participation in the growth of this fledgling body,
LATEST NEWS
25th February, 2011
Career Advancement and Sustainability
Historically welfare to work policies have concentrated on job placement, however, recent UK government policy has seen a shifting of focus towards sustainable job outcomes where sustainability may only be recognised two years after being placed in work.
Previous assumptions that opportunities for career advancement would sit in the hands of the employee can no longer remain. Future funding models will mean welfare to work providers have to develop the necessary skills to help long term unemployed people remain in work. Career advancement may hold the key to promoting sustainability and making welfare to work programmes financially viable through partnerships.
Read more on this HERE24th February, 2011
So what to look out for next? The government's many shake ups within the education system have definitely rocked the boat in 2010. The Work Based Learning sector has seen many changes, with inevitable impacts for those working within it. The most notable of these was the government's decision to put the final nail in the Train to Gain coffin, whilst also committing to a increased investment in Apprenticeship schemes. On a delivery level, there have also been emerging and growing courses, such as the increase in BIT/ PMO delivery, in response to the economy's recovery from the recession and the new STLS courses. But what will really be the area to watch in 2011 for those within the education & training industry?
Read the full article HERE
Geography, the Big Society and public spending cuts
There have been several reports in the newspapers recently saying that the Big Society is going to be threatened by cuts in public spending. To some people this might seem like a slightly odd thing to say. If the Big Society is about people organising themselves outside of the reach of the Government then a reduction in Government spending shouldn't have much effect. Indeed, Conservatives have always tended to see Government as having, at best, a limited ability to create community where it did not already exist. And my guess would be that that is still the view of many Conservative and quite a few Liberal MPs. Government should get out of the way and let people organise their lives as they wish.
Read the full article HERE
Reforming welfare: a mixed bag
23rd February, 2011
Last week, Reform published its 2011 scorecard of the coalition government’s public service reform programme. Yesterday, Thomas Cawston explained how the coalition can get NHS reforms back on track. Today, Patrick Nolan, Chief Economist at Reform, discusses why the government’s welfare reforms scraped through with a pass.
The government’s welfare reforms are significant. The 2010 Emergency Budget and Spending Review announced cuts of £18 billion to benefits, so the DWP had to respond with a radical agenda. The Work Programme aims to incentivise providers to deliver better outcomes from welfare to work services and the Universal Credit promises to create a simpler system where “work always pays.” Also, the Government has broken the principle of universality of the Child Benefit.
The Universal Credit is the flagship reform; it aims to make the welfare system simpler and easier to administer. It is hoped that combining out-of-work and in-work benefits into a single Universal Credit will ensure “work always pays.” It is also hoped that take-up and levels of error and fraud under the new system will be improved. However, the Universal Credit is not a silver bullet and involves significant trade-offs and costs. Too little thought has been given to how the Universal Credit will actually work in practice and whether the proposed IT system will deliver. The fiascos of the Child Support and National Health System IT projects give grounds for concern.
One of the first initiatives that the government announced was a new Work Programme to outsource all welfare to work services. The Work Programme builds on the Flexible New Deal, but now covers all welfare to work services. The new commissioning framework will give providers longer and larger contracts, greater freedom and will fund welfare to work services through the savings made in reductions in benefit expenditure.
The government has also attempted to address middle class welfare by scrapping the Child Trust Fund, targeting Child Tax Credits and means-testing Child Benefit. Yet the wrong approach to means-testing the Child Benefit has been taken. Withdrawing the Child Benefit for households with a high rate taxpayer is unfair and difficult to implement, and could bring the whole idea of means-testing benefits into disrepute. The government needs to avoid doing the right things in the wrong way.
The government has also failed to assess adequately the rising cost of pension benefits and protected low value pension “gimmicks” such as the Winter Fuel Allowance. Bringing forward the increase in the retirement age is the right thing to do. While previous governments recognised that the system is unaffordable, a lack of political will meant that changes were pushed too far into the future. But the savings from this change will be swamped by the rising costs of pensions due to the decision to link the basic state pension to wages not prices. Increasing the costs of pensions will exceed other savings made in benefits in the long term.
The government’s welfare reforms are in danger of promising too much and delivering too little. Iain Duncan Smith’s Universal Credit is untested, expensive and will be hard to implement. The Work Programme is positive and efforts to reduce the (fiscal and social) cost of out-of-work benefits are right. The government has also been right to start means-testing middle class welfare, but it needs to go further on this and to think again about the long-term cost of pensions.
LATEST NEWS
22nd February, 2011
Jobs for young people
The Scottish Government is to invest a further £10 million in 2011-12 to support unemployed young people into work and training opportunities in a new programme, Community Jobs Scotland.
The funding will primarily support 16-24 year olds unemployed for six months or more into a job within a third sector organisation in their community. There will also be opportunities for older unemployed people in those areas where unemployment is highest.
The initiative will be rolled out across Scotland providing young people with six-month contracts of 25 hours or more per week, for at least the minimum wage.
More details HERE
‘A sustainable Work Programme is required to make a success of welfare reform’
ALP has submitted to the DWP a list of over 10 significant concerns on the Work Programme, which will be introduced under the government’s Welfare Reform Bill published today. Some of these are technical but overall they relate to:
• the tightness of the programme’s finances and the trickle-down effect of this on a supply chain which is more vulnerable to financial instability than the large prime contractors holding the contracts with DWP
• the very high performance expectations that equate to the highest levels that the previous New Deals ever achieved in a much more favourable economic conditions
More details HERE
Youth unemployment rise sparks concern
UK unemployment rose by 44,000 in the last three months of 2010, reaching a total of almost 2.5 million, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed today.
The rise means the overall unemployment rate is now 7.9 per cent, up 0.1. While this figure was less than some were expecting, there were more worrying signs for youth unemployment, with the number of jobless 18-24 year olds going up 66,000 to 965,000 – a rate of 20.5 per cent.
Long-term unemployment also worsened, with 17,000 more people out of work for over a year – reaching a total of 833,000.
Employment minister Chris Grayling claimed the figures showed unemployment was starting to stabilise.
"We've got a long way to go and I want to see these figures start to come down, but certainly the evidence is over the past month things have settled down and we are not seeing the increases we saw earlier in the last quarter," said Grayling.
CIPD chief economist John Philpott said that since the data will not include the impact of the government’s spending cuts, he expects further deterioration in 2011.
More details HERE
19th February, 2011
Founder of The Shaw Trust, Tim Pape, has joined GOALS UK as a Director.
With more than 30 years’ experience helping people from all areas in society, Tim is a welcome addition to the GOALS UK team.
Before retiring as The Shaw Trust’s Chief Executive at the end of 2009, Tim was responsible for taking the company from 15 clients and a turnover of £40,000 in its first year to a turnover of more than £100 million per annum regularly helping more than 65,000 a year. In 2009 The Shaw Trust secured 25,000 jobs for its clients.
“I particularly believe what made The Shaw Trust a success was its mission, organisation and measured effectiveness of achieving our purpose”.
Tim intends to bring his wealth of knowledge, hands-on experience and connections to GOALS UK, to enable the company’s growth both within the UK and internationally, including within the European Union.
“It is important for GOALS’ growth that the company connects with the international markets, bringing successful ideas and working practices from overseas, as well as taking their own successes to the international markets”.
During the last 20 years, GOALS has successfully helped more than 150,000 people from all areas of society – and is keen to extend its wealth of knowledge and experience to a much wider audience.
“The opportunities are endless for the GOALS organisation – in the next two years; I would like to be instrumental in helping the company double its volume of business and ensure that GOALS offers a range of cost effective services which meet a wide range of customer needs, whilst maintaining the GOALS values and message”.
Philip Collett MD of GOALS UK said – “Tim’s extensive wisdom and experience, particularly with the health related sector, will help us ensure we are driven by the needs of our customers. Getting the Work Programme to work will mean bringing together the “best of the best” and I am confident that with Tim’s expertise we will be in a better position to realise the true potential of The GOALS programme and move the company forward to its next level”.
ALPs: Providers have their say
The employment and training providers who will be delivering the government’s new Work Programme have welcomed the general thrust of today’s welfare reform announcements, but have expressed serious concerns about the long-term viability of the work-related requirements when their success is crucial in the response to growing unemployment.
While supportive of the general payment by results principles behind it, the providers’ representative body, the Association of Learning Providers (ALP), believes that the design of the Work Programme is fraught with risks which may impact significantly on the number of unemployed people who can benefit from it. Prior to this week’s news reports, ALP had already expressed concerns to the Commons select committee that the DWP’s volume projections are felt to lack transparency and credibility.
ALP has submitted to the DWP a list of over 10 significant concerns on the Work Programme, which will be introduced under the government’s Welfare Reform Bill published today. Some of these are technical but overall they relate to:
- the tightness of the programme’s finances and the trickle-down effect of this on a supply chain which is more vulnerable to financial instability than the large prime contractors holding the contracts with DWP
- the very high performance expectations that equate to the highest levels that the previous New Deals ever achieved in a much more favourable economic conditions.
The squeeze on the prime contractors may be passed down to the smaller sub-contractors, including many from the voluntary sector, to the point that more providers will drop out of the programme, leaving gaps in provision to which the government will have to respond quickly and at greater cost to the taxpayer.
Graham Hoyle OBE, ALP chief executive, said, “Providers feel that their contract terms are of unprecedentedly high risk to the extent that the whole programme’s operation may itself be in danger – let alone the danger it presents to suppliers. With the programme due to begin in the summer, we call on ministers to urgently reconsider the terms of a fundamental tenet of its public service reforms.”
ALP is also calling for a cross-departmental response to the large increase in youth unemployment. While it has strongly welcomed the government’s backing of apprenticeships, it believes that other areas of provision, such as the DfE’s Foundation Learning programme, for the NEET group need addressing urgently.
18th February, 2011
Will Benefits shake-up make work pay?Scottish Housing and Communities Minister Alex Neil last night claimed many measures within the bill would penalise the poor. He said: “In Scotland we have established a Welfare Reform Scrutiny Group, bringing together national and local government with third-sector groups to go through the impact of these changes on vulnerable people with a fine-tooth comb.
“We will take the strongest possible case to the UK Government to think again.”
The SNP MSP said Westminster-enforced budget cuts were having an adverse impact on vulnerable people who needed protecting most.
Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray said the UK Government plans would “take away support from people who are out of work through no fault of their own”.
Mr Duncan Smith claimed the new bill would restore the UK’s welfare system to its founding principals of meeting the demand for a fairer society.
“Our reforms will end the absurdity of a system where people too often get rewarded for doing the wrong thing, and those who strive to do the best by their families get penalised,” he said.
“The publication of the Welfare Reform Bill will put work, rather than hand-outs, at the heart of the welfare system. It will ensure we continue to provide appropriate support for those genuinely unable to work, as we must and as we should, and it will provide a fair deal for the taxpayer.”
The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and housing and homeless charity Shelter Scotland welcomed the decision to scrap plans to cut housing benefit by 10% for people on jobseekers allowance for more than one year.
Citizens Advice Scotland chief executive Lucy McTernan said it welcomed, in principle, proposals for a new universal benefit.
“If it simplifies the benefits system, removes bureaucracy and makes it easier for people to receive the support they need, that has to be a good thing provided it does not involve cuts in the money that people will receive.”
Mr Neil claimed the welfare system needed to be streamlined but budget cuts were penalising the “very people we should be protecting”.
“Thousands of families in Scotland are going to feel the full force of savage welfare cuts by the UK Government, on top of the rises in VAT and inflation,” he added.
John Dickie, head of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, said: “It is right to want to simplify welfare and help people into work.
“But lack of Treasury funding means this bill risks making millions of households in Scotland and across the UK even worse off as a result of higher benefit withdrawal rates and reduced childcare support,” he added.
Mr Gray said welfare to work schemes will not work without jobs and only his party had a “credible plan” for getting people working again.
“There is a real risk that the Tory plan will push people into poverty when they need help getting into work,” he added. “Labour will stand up to the Tories if they take away support from people who are out of work through no fault of their own.”
Scottish Trades Union Congress general secretary Grahame Smith said the UK Government was pushing an agenda of “welfare to work without the work” and added: “The strategy is predicated on there being enough jobs, sufficiently flexible and of the right kind to justify changing the employability status of hundreds and thousands of people. No one will object to sensible proposals designed to simplify the benefits system, neither will they object to genuine measures to reduce poverty traps. But no amount of spin can hide the fact that along with changes come the stripping of billions of pounds in benefits to the detriment of sick and disabled people and families with children across Scotland.”
17th February, 2011
IDS is forced to backtrack on his welfare reformsLatest reports are suggesting the government is set to unveil the biggest shake-up of welfare for a generation today, but it has backtracked on plans to cut housing benefit.
The welfare reform bill to introduce Universal credits, which will be published today, will not include plans to cut housing benefit by ten per cent if someone in the household had been on jobseekers' allowance for over a year.
"We won't see this in the bill for one very good reason," Work and Pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the Today programme this morning.
"The more we looked at this, the more I reviewed the interplay between that reduction at 12 months and the universal credit and work programme meant that all of these people were going to move into the work programme anyway, so they would be having intensive help to get back to work."
But he discounted reports that the U-turn was the product of lobbying from deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg.
"I am fully one with Nick and others on this," he said.
This is not the only about turn the government is making. The U-turn comes on the same day that the government appeared to think twice about its proposed forestry sell-off, following a highly successful lobbying campaign from members of the public.
Shadow Work and Pensions secretary Liam Byrne said: "Labour has consistently called on the Tory-led gvernment to abandon this change so we welcome their U-turn.
"They need a Plan B for the economy and a bigger welfare to work programme. At the moment they have neither."
David Cameron will make a speech later today suggesting the reforms are intended to adapt welfare for the less-respectable work habits of a new generation.
"When the welfare system was born, there was what we might call a collective culture of responsibility," he will say.
"More than today, people's self-image was not just about their personal status or success, it was measured out by what sort of citizen they were; whether they did the decent thing.
"Now let's be honest about where we've travelled to, from there to here. That collective culture of responsibility - taken for granted sixty years ago - has in many ways been lost."
The welfare plans would see the plethora of welfare payments simplified into a single universal credit.
The proposals are at least partly intended to improve the incentives to work for people on welfare, but experts are wary of the details.
Some researchers suggest the credit might reduce the incentive to work longer hours or for promotion because the taper level is too high.
There are also worries that by only agreeing to pay 70% of childcare costs, the government will leave some struggling families worse off than they are already.
Changes to the eligibility rules mean that couples need to work 24 hours a week between them with one partner working at least 16 hours if they are to receive the working tax credit.
Campaigners warn that the reform could leave some families worse off in work than out and might push them into poverty.
"The jury is still out on the universal credit," said Child Poverty Action Group chief executive Alison Garnham.
"The Treasury is wrecking the plans from the outset by enforcing funding shortfalls that will make work pay less for millions of people, scrap access to back to work support for hundreds of thousands of claimants, and slash the childcare funding that helps many parents work."
Mr Smith insisted that a million people would be better off under the reform.
"Nobody will be worse off because every single person, as we migrate them on to this new credit, will be cash-protected. That means that whatever system you are on, we will stay at that level whilst the new system is set," he said.
"The key thing about the system is that by bringing [benefits] together, simplifying them and making sure that people understand it, and by changing the way they're withdrawn so there's a simplified system - actually what we're going to see is just under one million people will be lifted out of poverty because of this, and one million people, mostly of the poorest, will see increases of around £25 per week as they go back to work."
Labour is generally supportive of the universal credit and is expected to support the main thrust of the bill.
Work Programme will help fewer people than Labour
16th February, 2011
The truth is finally coming out – less than 48 hours after bids were submitted and before contracts have been awarded. Work Programme will ‘help’ less people than Flexible New Deal, despite being heralded as the "biggest and boldest" push to get people on benefits back to work.
In 2009 – 2010, under the Flexible New Deal programme, about 850,000 people went through the scheme, but officials have said they expect 605,000 people to go through the scheme in 2011-12 and 565,000 in 2012-13. Unfortunately, of 279,000 who went through last year, only 3,800 obtained full-time long-term jobs.
The government have defended the decrease in numbers by arguing that more support will be available at local jobcentres. Quite how this will happen as government departments are being forced to shed staff remains in doubt, but the likelihood is that less staff will be required to deliver additional support to claimants visiting jobcentre offices. It is no secret that Iain Duncan Smith has been forced to make significant job cuts across his department. As a result, jobcentres are trying to cope with a 25% budget cut and looking at close to 10,000 job losses by March 2013.
With this in mind it is hard to see how Cameron can still dare to assert that his flagship scheme will be the ‘cure all’ for unemployment in the UK, particularly as some of the leading suppliers have chosen to withdraw from the bidding and have chosen to not be prime contractors when the awards are announced.
All of this is falling on a day when unemployment is expected to rise and continue to do so for the months ahead. Cameron will have a lot of explaining to do when it comes to PMQs later today – the question is whether Miliband will give him the tough time he needs, or will he let him off the hook.
LATEST NEWS - 15th FEBRUARY, 2011
15th February, 2011
TUC - Government must create jobs, not blame sick and disabled for being out of work
Commenting on findings from the DWP incapacity benefit reassessment programme, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
'While we welcome the government's commitment to implement the Harrington Review to improve the operation of work capability assessments, these trials were carried out under the old system where 40 per cent of appeals were upheld, due to problems the government acknowledges still exist.
Even among those who do not appeal, many of the people judged as 'fit for work' in these trials are disabled, and will face additional barriers moving into the jobs market - particularly as they are likely to have spent a long period out of work and live in areas where unemployment is high
Almost £1 million to help 16-17 year-olds into work
As part of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Youth Engagement and Employment Action Plan, Education Minister Leighton Andrews yesterday launched a new £900,000 pilot scheme to help young people aged 16 to 17 into employment.
The scheme is part of the Intermediate Labour Market Programme (ILM), and will offer 180 employment opportunities in Communities First areas in parts of South and West Wales, for a six month period.
Funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and European Social Fund, the ILM is provided through the Welsh Council for Voluntary Action and already operates across North Wales.
More details HERE
DWP confirms welfare to work transitional arrangements
The DWP have agreed to institute transitional arrangements in the run-up to the introduction of the Work Programme. Earlier this month, the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, Dame Anne Begg, wrote to the Minister for Employment seeking an urgent response to concerns about the transitional arrangements for the Government’s Work Programme.
In evidence given to the committee on 2 February, witnesses representing organisations bidding to provide employment programmes for the Government highlighted a potential gap in welfare-to-work provision between the termination by April 2011 of many existing programmes and the launch of the Work Programme in June 2011.
The Government have now announced an extension on the last date for referrals to New Deal, Private Sector Led New Deal, Employment Zones and Flexible New Deal to 1 June 2011 (excluding Gateway to Work). Customers will be referred for 13 weeks of provision following this date, ensuring that they will be supported up until the point when the Work Programme is rolled out. Community Task Force referrals have been extended to 1 June 2011.
Dave Simmonds, Chief Executive of Inclusion, welcomed the announcement having highlighted the importance of transitory arrangements, “the Department has to grapple with these transitionary arrangements quickly for two reasons. The first reason is for claimants themselves, to make sure there is continuity of support and no gap ... . Secondly, .... transitioning from one set of contracts to Work Programme contracts .. is highly complex. ... but there is no doubt that it’s causing a lot of concern out there.”
More details HERE
LATEST NEWS - 14th FEBRUARY, 2011
14th February, 2011
133,000 lose £475 with 10% JSA cut
The National Housing Federation has released some very important information and analysis on the government’s policy to cut JSA benefits by 10% after 12 months. The key findings:
1. An estimated 133,000 families will be affected with an average annual cut of £475.
2. Those in larger households, claiming the maximum housing benefit for a four bedroom home, the penalty would be £2080 a year, and £1768 a year for a three bed.
3. There are 45 claimants for every job vacancy in some of the poorest parts of the country. The national average stands at 6.7 claimants for every vacancy.
4. The highest numbers of JSA claimants over 12 months (the ones to be hit by this measure) are found in Birmingham Ladywood, Birmingham Hodge Hill, Tottenham, West Ham, and Kingston upon Hull North.
More details HERE
Encouraging the unemployed into workCutting housing benefit for unemployed people will encourage them to return to work, the Work and Pensions Secretary has explained.
Giving evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee, Iain Duncan Smith said the government was committed to the cut, which will remove 10 per cent of a claimant’s housing benefit if they have been on jobseeker’s allowance for more than a year. Claimants will be in the work programme where they will receive intensive support, which – according to the government – will act as an incentive not a disincentive
Last month the government bowed to pressure in the House of Lords to order an independent review of its housing benefit reforms. Mr Duncan Smith said the government would heed the conclusions of this review before launching the Universal Credit in 2013.
Details of the Universal Credit and the changes for JSA claimants will be laid out in the Welfare Reform Bill due next week.
163,000 council posts 'at risk'The total number of jobs "at risk" of being made redundant in UK local authorities now stands at almost 163,000, up from 150,000 at the beginning of the month, according to latest figures.
The GMB union, which monitors formal notifications made by councils and police and fire services, says the current 162,718 total is based on returns made by 290 authorities.
Major job losses anounnced in the last few days include those at a string of Scottish authorities. They include: Edinburgh council (1,200 jobs at risk); Strathclyde police (800); Renfrewshire council (500); South Lanarkshire council (400); and Central Scotland police (374). Significant numbers of posts are threatened at: London borough of Sutton (400); Gwent police (350); and North Yorkshire council (330).
More details HERE
NDDP and Pathways contracts The government has confirmed that New Deal for Disabled People (NDDP) and Pathways to Work contracts will not be extended to dovetail with the start of the Work Programme. The news came in a letter to NDDP and Pathways providers which announced that Jobcentre Plus will be providing services to this client group in the intervening period.
Grayling to give evidence at Select Committee on Work Programme Chris Grayling, Minister for Employment, is confirmed as giving evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee on 14th March.
This will be final evidence session taking place as part of the Committee's inquiry into the Work Programme: providers and contracting arrangements.
'Life not worth living' for disabled people facing benefit cuts
Ministers appear to be preparing a crackdown on disability payments, likely to be one of the most contentious of the coalition's welfare reforms. Last week in a headline the Daily Mail described state support as "the great disability benefit free-for-all".
More details HERE
Families could lose over £2,700 a year despite 'no losers' welfare pledge, says TUCNew research released by the TUC has found low and middle income families will suffer annual benefit cuts of over £2,700 a year by 2013, despite government pledges there are to be 'no losers' in the setting up of the new universal credit system. The government have declared no one is to be numerically worse off, with the switchover to the Universal Credit.
However, the TUC has argued this fails to acknowledge deep cuts being made to the welfare budget in the run up to change. Between 2011 and 2013, the government is introducing a series of welfare cuts including freezing elements of working tax credit and child benefit.
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DWP announces Fitness for work assessment continues to be improvedThe DWP has announced they are on track to implement the recommendations of the Harrington Review of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) by summer, and they aregoing ahead with changes to regulations which will mean people suffering from mental health problems or going through chemotherapy will be given more leeway in the process
In future there will be greater personalisation of the assessment process, and measures to provide additional safeguards to protect the most vulnerable current claimants of incapacity benefits.
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CBI warns of rising unemployment and slower growth in 2011The CBI has downgraded its GDP growth forecast for 2011 and 2012. The revised rate of 1.8%, is down slightly from 2.0%. Its forecast for 2012 is for slightly faster growth of 2.3%, down from a forecast of 2.4% made in December. They predict unemployment to continue rising during 2011, peaking higher than previously forecast at 2.71 million by the end of the year. It will remain persistently high during 2012, and be at 2.64 million by Q4 2012. They expect the Bank of England to begin tightening monetary policy from the spring.
Figures expected on Wednesday anticipate that CPI will be approximately 4%, whilst wage increases for the same period will average 2%.
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A Bunch of Cowboys?
12th February, 2011DWP recently published the first findings of the incapacity benefit reassessment programme. The research was based on an inquiry into two pilot areas Aberdeen and Burnley.
Results from the research show that only a small proportion of claimants have the capacity to return to work. More specifically, only 29.6% were found to be fit for work.
Naturally, DWP chose to fudge the figures by pointing out how 39% are in the work related activity of ESA
Commenting on the result, the Government said they intend to continue with their plan for a further limited roll-out from the end of this month before they implement a full nationwide launch in April.
Once the programme is rolled out in full, 1.5m people will eventually be re-assessed.
In the meantime, even though the research shows that these people respond better if they have the right help, no-one has pointed out that training providers employ caseworkers who:
a) Are not required to have no formal qualifications
b) Are not governed by any professional body
c) Do not have to undergo any form of continuing professional development
d) Practitioners do not hold any kind of professional indemnity insurance
In short, we are expected to support an imitative run by untrained people. Now let me tell you a short story. Let us assume you were seriously in need of counselling – perhaps you have severe grief issues, or as a child you were sexually abused. Now, let us also assume the ‘professional’ you saw had no qualifications, did not belong to any professional body and received no professional supervision. Would you still go? Or, like me, would you run as fast as your legs would carry out away from the charlatan
In the meantime, the government is paying providers millions to run Work Choice to get disabled people back to work and later this year they will implement Work Programme.
And who will run frontline services? You’ve got it …. The caseworkers with no qualifications
So much for empathy
10th February, 2011Is it just me, or am I the only one who finds it quite obscene that it has taken until now for DWP to even consider implementing some of the changes of the Harrington Review? I am thinking in particular of changes to regulations they intend to make which will mean people suffering from mental health problems or going through chemotherapy will be given more leeway in the review process.
I just find the whole thing disgusting that someone receiving chemotherapy should have to consider the idea of facing a Work Capability Assessment. Don’t they have enough on their hands with their illness? Or have the government become so heartless and determined to reduce unemployment statistics that they will resort to any kind of low measures to achieve it.
I also find it quite laughable that Ministers have agreed with the recommendations of the Social Security Advisory Committee’s latest report, that there needs to be more empathy and improved communications with claimants and better decision making in the whole process. It has taken Ministers until now to realise the jobless are treated like cattle by Jobcentre Plus, or as sales items by training providers?
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s yet another example of how the needs of the jobless come last.
So, those of you who are unemployed, please leave comments to this blog entry. I would love to hear how this ‘new empathy’ is working. Can we expect employment advisers to adopt and understand Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? Should we anticipate that on ‘sign-on’ day you enter the portals of the jobcentre and from the moment you arrive, you are treated with unconditional positive regard?
Now call me cynical, but I reckon nothing will change, but I’d be delighted to be proven wrong.
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