Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee

Forty-Second Report - The Restart Scheme for long-term unemployed people

Public Accounts Committee HC 733 Published 22 March 2023

Report Status

Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations

26 items (9 recs)

Source

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Government Response

AI assessment · 25 of 26 classified

Accepted 19

Accepted in Part 1

Acknowledged 4

Not Addressed 1

Government response

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Forty second report from Session 2022-23 · published 27 Jun 2023

Read the government response ↗ Response on the Index

Recommendations & Conclusions

4 items

4 Recommendation Acknowledged

The Department did not know enough about its claimants to understand what support they needed...

Recommendation

The Department did not know enough about its claimants to understand what support they needed and how many eligible claimants would go on to participate in Restart. The Department’s work coaches know a lot about their claimants, but much of … Read more The Department did not know enough about its claimants to understand what support they needed and how many eligible claimants would go on to participate in Restart. The Department’s work coaches know a lot about their claimants, but much of this information is recorded as freeform text on a person’s benefit claim. This makes it difficult for the Department to collate and consider this information when it designs employment support. As an example, the Department said it had recently learned from providers that around 45% of people going onto Restart in some areas have English as a second language. Individual work coaches will know this about their individual claimants, but this is not information that the Department can aggregate to inform providers or use to ensure it is purchasing the support that claimants most need. Similarly, the Department does not have a vulnerability flag in the UC system, or a flag to denote mental health problems. The Department had expected its work coaches to find 82% of system-suggested claimants to be suitable for Restart and in reality, work coaches have only found 43% to be suitable. The Department did not run trials to test these assumptions about how many people The Restart Scheme for long-term unemployed people 7 would be found suitable as it felt it did not have time, that work coaches did not know their claimants as well because of COVID-19 lockdowns, and because claimant circumstances would change between it running a trial and launching the scheme. Recommendation 4: • The Department should set out how it will improve its record keeping so that barriers to work faced by a claimant, such as language difficulties or health conditions, are recorded and can be aggregated in the Universal Credit system to understand the type and scale of support the Department needs to provide, and so that providers have the best possible understanding of how they can help participants. • The Department should seek to establish the level of capacity Show less

Government Response Summary

The government acknowledges the value of testing assumptions prior to procurement but notes that trials can take up to two years to complete. The department will need to assess and balance the risks and opportunities when determining the right approach.

HM Treasury

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9 Conclusion Acknowledged

We asked the Department whether it could have had any better information or better data...

Conclusion

We asked the Department whether it could have had any better information or better data to predict demand, and it told us that it was keen to learn from its experience of Restart about how to predict demand, and later … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the committee's observation, stating the recommendation is implemented. It details lessons learned about designing support during economic uncertainty, including considering broader scenarios, adaptability, and the role of pilots in informing policy.

HM Treasury

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19 Conclusion Acknowledged

From 2010–11, when it was responding to the last economic crash, to 2020–21, the Department...

Conclusion

From 2010–11, when it was responding to the last economic crash, to 2020–21, the Department reduced its expenditure on employment support from £2.9 bn to £300 million per year.35 The Department told us that when it was designing Restart, it … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees and states the recommendation is implemented, explaining that Restart was designed during economic uncertainty. It highlights lessons learned regarding considering a broader range of scenarios and how provision can adapt to changes in demand.

HM Treasury

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20 Conclusion Acknowledged

However, shortly after launching Restart, the Department realised that had it had significantly overestimated the...

Conclusion

However, shortly after launching Restart, the Department realised that had it had significantly overestimated the demand, partly because it expected there to be more eligible participants, and partly because it expected more of those eligible participants to be found suitable … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the committee's observation and states the recommendation is implemented. It highlights lessons learned regarding designing support in uncertain economic conditions, emphasising the need to consider broader scenarios and how provision can adapt.

HM Treasury

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