Back-to-work programme highly criticized

The last government programme costing has cost the taxpayers over £760m and aimed to encourage citizens on incapacity benefit back into jobs. This programme has been deeply criticized for “under-performance” by the spending watchdog.

The "Pathways to Work" programme was deployed across the United Kingdom between 2005 and 2008. It was available to those claiming incapacity benefits and Employment and Support Allowance, with participation mandatory for some claimants. The scheme is operated by Jobcentre Plus in just 40% of the UK, with the 60% majority provided by private sector companies instead.

People Management recently published a report by the public accounts committee that indicated the scheme performance was very poor after finding that those regions where Pathways is available by the private sector have "seriously underperformed". The report also mentions that the private sector locations did not show as much success as Jobcentre Plus, "even though private contractors work in easier areas with fewer incapacity claimants and higher demand for labour."

According to the same report, the scheme has been meeting the initial objective of lowering the number of incapacity claimants by 25%. From 2008, that number has only been reduced by less than 5%.In addition to that, this result can not be completely related to the programme. Assuming that the reduction was due to the Pathways programme, the cost would be estimated to an approximate £6,000 on each claimant who would return to work - a potentially acceptable figure, given that during 2008/09 the DWP paid around £12.6 billion in incapacity benefits to 2.6 million claimants.