Recommendation 34

The Department told us that it was “quite unlikely” that the scheme paid for itself fiscally, but it did not know that for certain. It explained that, from an Accounting Officer’s point of view, the value of the scheme was over and above the fiscal and economic considerations – it was about the scheme’s benefits to society and to individuals. These benefits were what made the scheme appropriate to do and to do at the current scale.65 The Department stressed its view that Access to Work plays a very important role not just in helping people to get into work from a fiscal and economic point of view, but in the difference that work makes to people’s wellbeing and sense of purpose.66 64 Qq 39 and 41-42 65 Q 39 and 41-42 66 Q 1 18