News

Fewer than 10% of the claimants on the work programme are receiving Employment and Support Allowance according to official statistics produced and released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The figures show that 565,000 claimants were referred by Jobcentre Plus to the Work Programme between 1 June 2011 and 31 January 2012. The total number of attachments was 519,000 after contact between the work provider and the claimant to plan steps into employment had been made.

The statistics reveal that 90.7% of the total number of referrals to the Work Programme represented claimants in receipt of jobseeker’​s allowance (JSA). The total for those in receipt of employment and support allowance (ESA) was just 8.5%.

Although the figure for ESA claimants appears to be a small proportion of the referrals overall, the DWP note a significant rise in ESA referrals in the last quarter. The increase coincides with changes to the referral criteria, changes to the way claimants are identified, and to “​focused incapacity benefit reassessm​ent”​.

The document can be found on the DWP website.