Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 32
Eighth Report - Plan for Jobs and employment support
Published 19 Jul 2023
Paragraph 207
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Plan for Jobs and employment support All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Support that is tailored to the needs of the individual produces better long-term results that not only gets people into work but helps them overcome the barriers to employment that were preventing them from gaining and sustaining employment. If these challenges are not dealt with effectively and individuals are not adequately prepared for the workplace, people run the risk of falling back into unemployment. However, to feel able to access wraparound support, trust needs to have been established between the person accessing the support and the person providing support. The Jobs Plus programmes we visited in the US seemed to have built that trust and rapport by using a community development approach to delivery. DWP should adopt a person-centred approach to future support initiatives which not only help people to find work but also to overcome barriers to employment. Schemes should bring together a range of services necessary to help address physical and mental health problems, intensive employment coaching, support for acquiring skills and qualifications, debt support and transport solutions. To achieve this, the Government should introduce a pilot of the Jobs Plus programme in the UK. Priority should be given to holding pilots, using a community development approach, in areas of high unemployment and high inactivity.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Eighth Report - Plan for Jobs and employment support (HC 600), paragraph 207, 19 July 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 23 October 2023 (deadline 24 October 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the report's focus on economic inactivity and points to its Spring Budget 2023 package, while declining several recommendations, including devolving all employment support and separating support from benefit administration.
- On the Housing Benefit and Universal Credit cliff edge, the Department "acknowledges the challenge" and officials are working to develop options, but says it "would be challenging to eradicate this issue as early as April 2024" and funding "would also need to be secured through a future fiscal event".
- It does not agree that Restart should be extended to inactive people, or that employment support should be separated from benefit administration, giving conditionality and welfare spend management as reasons for the latter.
- It does not agree to automatically devolve all employment support, deciding the delivery approach "on a programme-to-programme basis". It will trial a more devolved approach in the Greater Manchester and West Midlands deals before considering further rollout.
- On Jobs Plus, the government says it is "supportive of Jobs Plus and will be implementing a pilot scheme based on the Jobs Plus model", though no date is given.