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| More find jobs on Work Programme, DWP figures suggest | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| More people are finding jobs through the government's flagship back-to-work scheme, according to figures from the Department for Work and Pensions. | More people are finding jobs through the government's flagship back-to-work scheme, according to figures from the Department for Work and Pensions. |
| Some 13.4% of people referred to the scheme in the year to March found a lasting job - compared with 3.4% in the same period last year. | Some 13.4% of people referred to the scheme in the year to March found a lasting job - compared with 3.4% in the same period last year. |
| The scheme is still failing on measures set out by the DWP at its launch. | The scheme is still failing on measures set out by the DWP at its launch. |
| But ministers say the latest figures "demonstrate the growing success of the scheme". | But ministers say the latest figures "demonstrate the growing success of the scheme". |
| The programme is primarily aimed at getting people who have been unemployed for more than a year into a job. | The programme is primarily aimed at getting people who have been unemployed for more than a year into a job. |
| It is delivered by 18 prime contractors working for the government and hundreds of smaller sub-contractors from the voluntary, community and private sectors. | It is delivered by 18 prime contractors working for the government and hundreds of smaller sub-contractors from the voluntary, community and private sectors. |
| Providers are paid by results, meaning they get most of the fee for finding someone a job that they stay in for up to two years. They get more for the harder-to-help jobseekers. | Providers are paid by results, meaning they get most of the fee for finding someone a job that they stay in for up to two years. They get more for the harder-to-help jobseekers. |
| Dramatic improvements | Dramatic improvements |
| Since it was launched in June 2011, 132,000 people have found lasting jobs on the scheme out of the one million referred to it, a success rate of approximately 13.4%. | Since it was launched in June 2011, 132,000 people have found lasting jobs on the scheme out of the one million referred to it, a success rate of approximately 13.4%. |
| Figures for the first year of the programme, which launched in June 2011, showed just 3.5% of the people referred to the programme got a lasting job. | Figures for the first year of the programme, which launched in June 2011, showed just 3.5% of the people referred to the programme got a lasting job. |
| The most dramatic improvements have been in the figures for people receiving jobseeker's allowance, with nearly a third of 18-24-year-old jobseekers finding work. | The most dramatic improvements have been in the figures for people receiving jobseeker's allowance, with nearly a third of 18-24-year-old jobseekers finding work. |
| But only 5.5% of the unemployed people who have been moved to the programme from the Employment and Support Allowance, which supports sick and disabled jobseekers, found work. | But only 5.5% of the unemployed people who have been moved to the programme from the Employment and Support Allowance, which supports sick and disabled jobseekers, found work. |
| The DWP said the new figures only counted those who have been in work for long periods - six months in most cases, or three months for the hardest to help. | |
| Employment Minister Mark Hoban said: "The Work Programme is helping large numbers of people escape the misery of long-term unemployment and get back into real jobs. | |
| "The improvement in performance over the past year has been profound and the scheme is getting better and better." | |
| 'Change needed' | |
| He added that the worst-performing providers would begin to lose market share from August. | |
| The figures were welcomed by business lobby group the CBI, which said providers and the government had to continue to push for improvement. | |
| Jim Bligh, the CBI's head of public-sector reform, said: "Performance in supporting the hardest to help jobseekers needs to improve, but these people have significant barriers to work which take time to address." | |
| Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne, for Labour, said: "Three years into the Parliament, and nearly nine out of 10 people on this flagship programme have been failed. | |
| "Worst of all, the government missed every single one of its minimum targets, and in nearly half the country, the Work Programme is literally worse than doing nothing. | |
| "No wonder the benefits bill is £21bn higher than planned, and no wonder the chancellor himself was forced to attack 'under-performing' back-to-work programmes. | |
| "We can't go on like this. We desperately need a change of course starting with a compulsory jobs guarantee that would make sure everyone out of work long term would have to take a job after two years." |