Work Program To Increase Jobs At Risk In United Kingdom

By Author: jim mccarry
Total Articles: 37
Comment this article

Fresh doubts have been raised that the Work Programme will succeed at getting tens of thousands of unemployed people into sustainable jobs, lasting at least six months. According to the audits by the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), which represents back-to-work providers, shows a fifth of all people referred to the Work Programme – about 66,000 – have found jobs. But the ERSA said it is too early to tell whether those people are still in work – a key factor of the new scheme which only pays providers "by results" – and raised doubts that they would be able to maintain jobs.
According to the ERSA there was worrying anecdotal evidence that companies were only hiring part-time or fixed-term contract staff under the scheme, for assignments lasting less than six months, and were unable to extend those contracts due to the economic climate. The warning comes ahead of an official inquiry by the spending watchdog on its handling of fraud allegations across the welfare-to-work industry, which is on Tuesday due to grill the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
According to the official figures there ...
... are more than 100 cases of potential fraud investigated by authorities over the past six years, with only 10 relating to crisis-hit A4e. On Tuesday the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is likely to probe the DWP on how it has tackled fraud allegations across the industry and what it is doing to prevent wrongdoing under its new scheme. Chairman of PAC, Margaret Hodge stated that the Government should name all providers investigated as taxpayers had a right to know. The Work Programme was commissioned by the coalition in 2011, at a time when official forecasters expected UK growth of 2.6pc, compared to the forecast of 0.8pc for this year. Apply now with 1 month loan @ http://www.1monthloanuk.co.uk/ get quick cash for urgent needs.
According to a spokesman from ERSA although a fifth of unemployed people referred to the scheme found jobs, it was unlikely all those jobs were permanent and employers were increasingly becoming cautious about hiring new people amid euro zone troubles. The new scheme incentivizes providers to keep working with individuals for two years, to keep finding them work if they leave their jobs early on, as they only get paid in full once they can prove people have found sustainable jobs. ERSA warned those targets could be missed, adding that if fewer people were in sustainable work, fewer providers would be paid in full, meaning there was less money invested into the system to help the unemployed get back to work.