Government’s Work Programme is 'worse than doing nothing'

Published by Max Salsbury for 24dash.com in Central Government and also in Communities

The Government's Work Programme has been branded as "worse than doing nothing" by Labour.

It has been revealed that the multi-£billion scheme to help the long-term unemployed into work has only managed to get 3.6 percent of those taking part into secure employment in the last 14 months.

The Public Accounts Committee has just finished a report on the programme, with chair, Margaret Hodge MP, commenting that its effectiveness so far had been "extremely poor".

She said: "It is shocking that, of the 9,500 former incapacity benefit claimants referred to providers, only 20 people have been placed in a job that has lasted three months, while the poorest-performing provider did not manage to place a single person in the under-25 category into a job lasting six months."

However, the Government defended the scheme, claiming that it was "early days" and that the committee's report had presented a "skewed picture".

The committee pointed out that the 3.6 percent success rate in getting the long-term unemployed off of benefits was well short of the Department for Work and Pensions target of 11.9 percent.

The scheme, which was set up in June 2011, is expected to cost between £3bn and £5bn over five years.