Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Fifteenth Report - DWP Employment support
Public Accounts Committee
HC 177
Published 8 September 2021
Conclusions (22)
2
Conclusion
Any second surge in new benefit claims and unemployment as the furlough scheme comes to an end could disrupt the Department’s ability to provide employment support. At the start of the pandemic, the Department moved around 10,000 extra staff into claim-handling roles to respond to a surge which reached over …
3
Conclusion
We are concerned that the Department does not know why the unemployment impact of the pandemic has hit groups such as young people from minority ethnic backgrounds harder. In March 2021, the Office for National Statistics produced striking statistics showing unemployment for young black people aged 16–24 had 6 DWP …
4
Conclusion
The Department’s focus on getting people into any form of employment risks neglecting its wider ambitions around supporting disabled people to work and supporting people on low pay to progress. The Department’s current focus is on minimising the impact of the downturn on unemployment, particularly on young people and the …
5
Conclusion
The Department is not sufficiently transparent about the impact and take-up of its schemes at a local level. We recognise that good-quality evaluations can be challenging to deliver, and that measuring the impact of a programme can take years. We are pleased that the Department is developing its plans to …
6
Conclusion
The Department does not make the most of local authorities’ and employers’ in depth knowledge of local needs and priorities. Experts such as local authorities and employers have in-depth knowledge of local needs and priorities that can make employment support programmes more effective. However, the Department is not using local …
7
Conclusion
The quality of claimants’ experience with the Department and whether they receive the right support will depend on the Department’s ability to integrate the additional 13,500 new work coaches into its organisation and manage their performance effectively. The Department’s employment support is mainly accessible to people on benefits via their …
1
Conclusion
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Work and Pensions (the Department) about the employment support it provides to people who need help.1
8
Conclusion
In the event of a further surge of claimants when the furlough scheme ends, the Department would need to continue to process new claims for benefits, as well as providing the employment support schemes it is now delivering.18 During the initial surge in claimants the Department moved around 10,000 extra …
9
Conclusion
The Department also effectively switched off many of the usual conditions attached to people’s benefit entitlements early in the pandemic, meaning claimants did not have to demonstrate that they were searching for work to be eligible to receive benefits.21 Claimants were also not able to meet their work coach, and …
10
Conclusion
The Department does not have complete data on diversity or disadvantage of the people it supports. The National Audit Office reported that in February 2020, before the pandemic, the Department only had ethnicity data for 40% of claims made since January
11
Conclusion
In March 2021, the Office for National Statistics produced statistics showing that unemployment for young black people aged 16–24 had increased from 24.5% in the period October-December 2019 to 41.6% over the same period in 2020, while unemployment for young white people increased from 10.1% to 12.4%.27 These statistics were …
12
Conclusion
The Department’s current flagship programmes are aimed at youth unemployment, and the long term unemployed. There are relatively few schemes targeted at people from an ethnic minority background.29 The Department did tell us about its 20 challenge areas, which are 20 areas within England, Scotland and Wales with a high …
13
Conclusion
The Department explained that it is planning to evaluate the impact of its new schemes, beginning with the Kickstart programme, building on the evaluation work it completed for its previous schemes, which informed its current programme.34 We heard that the Department expects to use methodologies that allow it to separate …
14
Conclusion
While the Department publishes selective statistics about some of its support schemes, such as information about the work and health programme, it does not produce regular data on its schemes to allow Parliamentarians or its partners to scrutinise performance in real time, who instead have to wait for formal evaluation …
15
Conclusion
The Department’s employment support is mainly accessible to people on benefits, and they will usually be referred to that support via their jobcentre work coaches. Work coaches have considerable discretion to tailor their support to claimants, including discretion around: the frequency and form of their meetings with claimants; the support …
16
Conclusion
The Department told us that a real advantage of delivering employment support through its work coaches is the flexibility that those work coaches have to identify and draw on the right tools to help the claimant. The Department’s approach relies on work coaches’ ability to provide the right service to …
17
Conclusion
The Department told us that its “top priority” now is getting people into work through the pandemic, and that it wants to avoid the risk of ‘scarring’ that unemployment can have on a person’s chances of getting a job – particularly young people who may be 42 C&AG’s Report, pg …
18
Conclusion
People with health and disability issues continue to face major challenges in the workplace, including issues around workplace accessibility, negative attitudes, and a lack of assistive technology.51 In 2017, the Department, alongside the Department of Health & Social Care, set a goal of getting 1 million more disabled people into …
19
Conclusion
The Department, and the Department of Health & Social Care, ran a consultation from July to October 2019 seeking views on the different ways in which government and employers can reduce ill health-related job losses.54 The Department has committed to producing a Green Paper on the topic and a related …
20
Conclusion
The Department has established a Commission to review the evidence base around in-work progression and make recommendations to better support people in low-pay employment to progress.57 This consultation ended in December 2020, and its results were published on 1 July 2021. In the foreword to the publication, the Department committed …
21
Conclusion
The Department told us that it recognises that the needs of local areas differ, and said that it “is about working closely” with the local authority, local employers and local enterprise partnerships and mayoral combined authorities. We heard that the Department’s approach is for there to be “a national set …
22
Conclusion
We asked the Department whether it could be more proactive in sharing basic information such as its district provision tool—essentially a list of local provision—with partners, so they could see what people were being referred to, and to see if they could plug gaps or offer alternative provision.63 The Department …