Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 12
4th Report – Get Britain Working: Reforming Jobcentres
Published 8 Sep 2025
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Get Britain Working: Reforming Jobcentres All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We recommend that DWP looks at how to better manage work coach capacity, including modelling how its planned Jobcentre reforms will change demand for work coach time and capacity. In response to this inquiry, it should set out: • a summary of this modelling; • its plans for meeting the demands of the new service with the available supply of work coaches; • a framework for deciding who it will prioritise for time with work coaches; • its understanding of how work coaches’ caseloads vary across different activities and between different Jobcentres; and • its plans for monitoring the changing demands on work coaches and managing future changes. (Recommendation, Paragraph 66)
From: Work and Pensions Committee, 4th Report – Get Britain Working: Reforming Jobcentres (HC 653), 8 September 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 13 November 2025 (deadline 8 November 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government partially accepts or accepts most of the Committee's recommendations on reforming Jobcentres, does not accept three, and says it will publish a report in spring 2026 setting out more detail on delivering the new Jobs and Careers Service.
- On the Claimant Commitment, it partially accepts the recommendation, does "not agree that a public consultation is necessary at this stage" as changes are already being tested in the Pathfinder, and will review the policy once initial findings are available.
- On sanctions, it partially accepts, saying there is "a place for sanctions" where claimants do not meet reasonable requirements without good reason. It has "no current plans for further research" but will keep this under review.
- It accepts the recommendation to review the work coach model, and says a review bringing together the available evidence on work coach and third-party employment support "will be published by the end of 2026".
- It does not accept the recommendations on work coach capacity modelling, an AI ethics framework for employment support, or restoring the 3-month period to search in a preferred sector. On the last, it will "actively consider" whether the policy remains appropriate.