Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

Jobcentres

Status: Closed Opened: 26 Mar 2025 Closed: 22 Sep 2025 5 recommendations 26 conclusions 1 report

The Government plans to reform the system of employment support, including by merging Jobcentre Plus with the National Careers Service. There are over 600 Jobcentres across Great Britain, forming a network which is the Department for Work and Pension’s main mechanism for supporting Universal Credit (UC) claimants into work and increase their income. In October …

Clear

Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
36th Report - Jobcentres HC 823 2 Jul 2025 31 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

5 items
25 Conclusion 36th Report - Jobcentres Acknowledged

Department for Work and Pensions explores new evaluation methods for quicker jobs service development.

We asked how the Department will make sure it provides a better service without evidence.53 The Department said it wants to conduct evaluations in a different way, to get test results quickly in order to help develop the new jobs and careers service. The Department said it is comparing and …

Government response. The government is using test and learn principles, including Pathfinders, to test the Jobs and Careers Service, and its evaluation strategy is under development with research to be published at a future date.
HM Treasury
26 Conclusion 36th Report - Jobcentres Acknowledged

£55 million funding for jobs and careers service development allocated across three key areas.

In the 2024 Autumn Budget, the government allocated £55 million for the Department to invest in developing new digital services and testing elements of the jobs and careers service in 2025–26.55 We asked the Department what progress has been made in deciding how to use the extra £55 million in …

Government response. The government outlines how the allocated £55 million is being spent on testing and developing the new Jobs and Careers Service, including pathfinder projects, digital services, and staff training.
HM Treasury
27 Conclusion 36th Report - Jobcentres Acknowledged

Pathfinder projects trialling innovative job support, placing work coaches in GP surgeries.

The Department explained it has a phased approach to the jobs and careers service. It said its ‘pathfinder projects’ are part of the first phase, testing new ways of delivering its services. In phase two, in 2026–27, it told us it would roll out further the things it has tried …

Government response. The government is using test and learn principles, including Pathfinders, to test the Jobs and Careers Service, and its evaluation strategy is under development with research to be published at a future date.
HM Treasury
28 Conclusion 36th Report - Jobcentres Acknowledged

A substantial amount of £55 million jobs and careers service funding remains unallocated.

The Department emphasised that its investment committee closely controls how it allocates the £55 million funding, and that it commits money for different proposals in packets. The Department also said, however, that it has not fully allocated the £55 million in extra funding, and that funding 55 C&AG’s Report, para …

Government response. The government explains how the £55 million is being allocated for the Jobs and Careers Service, including testing, digital activity and staff training, and that re-allocations are possible within the programme governance.
HM Treasury
31 Conclusion 36th Report - Jobcentres Acknowledged

Department established eight new outcome metrics to monitor employment reforms and publish data annually.

We asked the Department how it would measure the success of the new service and how it would measure the sustainability and quality of employment that people move into.63 In April 2025, the Department published Get Britain Working outcomes setting out eight outcome metrics that the government will monitor as …

Government response. The government highlights that it has published a set of intermediate metrics alongside the 80% employment rate target, and it will publish annual progress updates against these, starting in Autumn 2025.
HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
15 May 2025 Barbara Bennett · Department of Work and Pensions, Katherine Green · Department for Work and Pensions, Sir Peter Schofield KCB · Department for Work and Pensions View ↗

Correspondence

8 letters
DateDirectionTitle
20 Apr 2026 To cttee Letter from the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions to …
15 Sep 2025 To cttee Letter from the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions rel…
10 Jul 2025 From cttee Letter to the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions relat…
2 Jul 2025 To cttee Letter from the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions rel…
9 Jun 2025 To cttee Letter from the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions rel…
9 Jun 2025 To cttee Letter from the Director General, Labour Market and Poverty at the Department f…
9 Jun 2025 To cttee Letter from the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions rel…
19 May 2025 To cttee Letter from the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions rel…