Work programme

Hi all , am just wondering if anyone knows if you went on the work programme ( several years ago ) can you be asked to do it again? Not expecting to be asked for several health reasons and much worse than years ago so unable to even get there and that's just for starters ! But i would like to know in case my mums record of going there previously gets lost !? I say this as when my mum went to tribunal for esa last time the dwp had put in paperwork jt was a new claim ! Funny thing was ( if you can laugh ) in the paperwork bundle was also a previous set of papers dated several years earlier ! You couldn't make it up sometimes ! Judt would like to check this out . Many thanks .

Hi Gary thank you , im not finding a answer to my question anywhere at the moment . Hopefully someone eill know and/or been through this .

It was the rule/law back then ( don't recall exactly) once mandated to the 2 year Work Program you would not be made to do it again.There may have been later amendments i missed.

Currently It may be that DWP may does similar, without calling it the Work Program, ie and now you see either your JC+ coach or a provider

Remember that whilst you are on ESA they cannot, by law, mandate you to search for jobs, apply for jobs, or do any work experience.



Here is a snip from Work Programme Provider Guidance pdf

From 3.4.2017, new claimants are no longer referred to the Work Programme, and instead are referred
for WRA under the Jobcentre Plus Offer. Claimants already on the Work Programme will continue to be
supported under that programme.
Note: Referrals to the Work Programme ceased on 31.3.2017 and the final participants will complete the
programme on 29.3.2019.

I found this i had from early 2012 it was from 2011 long but anyway ----


April 2011

Briefing note: Work Programme in Greater Manchester


1. Summary
Three organisations have been selected by DWP to become preferred bidders for delivering the Work Programme in Greater Manchester and Cheshire. The successful bidders are Avanta, G4S and Seetec. Programme delivery is expected to begin within the next 3 months.
Based on DWP estimates, it is anticipated that the Work Programme will provide employment support to at least 170,000 long-term claimants of Jobseekers’ Allowance (JSA), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Incapacity Benefit (IB) and Income Support in Greater Manchester over its initial five year lifetime.
DWP expect that a third of the Work Programme customer group will be either recent or current claimants of health-related benefits, such as ESA or IB.
Contractors will be primarily paid by results – a share of the benefits savings that accrue when a customer enters and remains in employment. Eight different payment groups have been identified, with greater rewards available to prime contractors for supporting customers with more complex needs into sustained employment.
A ‘Black Box’ model of commissioning has been adopted by Government, providing minimal guidance to the prime contractors but enabling them maximum flexibility in designing their Work Programme plans.
Given a significant shared client group, there remain major opportunities for public and voluntary sector organisations to align, co-locate, co-case management and co-commission relevant support services with Work Programme prime contractors, helping ensure the best possible employment support service to Work Programme customers in Greater Manchester.

2. Background
The Work Programme forms a centrepiece of the Coalition government’s plans to reform welfare to work in the UK. While related reforms of benefits are being designed to increase incentives to work, changes to employment services (including the Work Programme) are planned to provide better quality support to enable more people to enter and remain in work.

The current overhaul of welfare-to-work provision is rooted in the report prepared for the Labour Government in 2007 by Lord David Freud. Now Minister for Welfare Reform in the Coalition Government, Freud’s report proposed a major shake-up of the welfare system, rooted in:

A financial model that uses monies set aside for future benefits payments to fund welfare-to-work activity
Transferring responsibility for delivering welfare to work activities to private or voluntary sector contractors, with bigger and longer contracts
Structuring contracts with welfare to work providers so that payments reflect success in getting people into sustained employment (ie. payment by outcomes)
Benefit payments that are conditional on an individual's willingness to work if they are able to do so

Each of these key principles is now reflected in the Work Programme.

3. Who will enter the Work Programme?
Annex A sets out Work Programme customer eligibility. A total of eight groups have been defined by DWP, with different referral points and terms of entry (ie mandatory participant or voluntary) dependent upon an individual’s benefit status and health prognosis. Referrals to the Work Programme will be made by Jobcentre Plus.

The vast majority of Jobseekers’ Allowance (JSA) claimants who enter the Work Programme will do so on a mandatory basis – ie. Sanctions will be applied if they fail to engage with work related activities via the Work Programme.

All Employment and Support Allowance claimants will be able to enter the Work Programme, with a modest number likely to enter on a mandatory basis. ESA claimants mandated to participate in work focused activity must meet four criteria, namely:

They are placed within the ESA Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) (i.e. assessed as able to enter paid employment in future, with the appropriate support), and
They have been assessed by the Work Capability Assessment as being within three months of becoming fit for work, and
They do not have a youngest child under five or be a full time carer, and
They are claiming income-based ESA: i.e. have insufficient NI contributions and savings of less than £16,000, or a partner working under 24 hours/week

Those not assessed as being within three months of being fit for work may volunteer to enter the Work Programme. This includes those claiming contributory ESA, which the Welfare Reform Bill confirmed will be payable for a maximum of 12 months for claimants in the ESA Work Related Activity Group.

Simultaneously, DWP is beginning the medical reassessment (Work Capability Assessment) of all Incapacity Benefit claimants in Greater Manchester. Running from April 2011 for a three year period, around 120,000 GM residents will be reassessed by DWP-appointed medics. Data from a pilot site in Burnley found that of those reassessed:

30% were declared ‘fit for work’ and transferred to Jobseekers’ Allowance (JSA)
40% were moved into the ESA Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) and required to participate in work-focused activity intended to help them get fit for work.
30% had health issues that meant that work is not a realistic prospect. This group was transferred onto ESA at an enhanced rate.

Those declared ‘fit for work’ and moved onto JSA will see a reduction in their benefit of around £30/week, as JSA is payable at a lower rate than IB or ESA. However this group will be eligible for early entry to the Work Programme at the discretion of Jobcentre Plus if they have not found work after 3 months on JSA. Those in the ESA WRAG are eligible to enter the Work Programme on a mandatory or voluntary basis, depending on their benefits status and health prognosis (see above).

4. How will the Work Programme be delivered?

Three preferred prime contractors have been announced by DWP to deliver the Work Programme for an initial five year period. They are:

Avanta ( HYPERLINK "www.avanta.uk.com" www.avanta.uk.com)
G4S ( HYPERLINK "www.g4swelfaretowork.com" www.g4swelfaretowork.com)
Seetec ( HYPERLINK "www.seetec.co.uk" www.seetec.co.uk)

Both Avanta and Seetec have delivered employment support services for DWP in Greater Manchester previously. G4S is a new market entrant. None of the appointed prime contractors have previously worked on a contract of this scale with clients with this level of need.

DWP have been clear that they will allow prime contractors maximum flexibility in developing interventions. Unlike previous DWP-commissioned programmes, there is very little guidance on what should/should not be delivered – so it is up to the prime contractor, working with local partners, to design and deliver activity that supports Work Programme customers into sustained jobs.

With payments to providers by DWP overwhelmingly geared towards sustained employment outcomes (up to 80% of the available funding will be payable in incremental instalments when an individual remains in work, for up to two years), there is a very strong incentive for the prime contractors to develop and deliver successful Work Programme activities.

Furthermore, DWP have put challenging minimum contract performance standards in place, below which prime contractors will be subject to a performance review.

More information about the plans of each prime contractor can be found via their web sites (addresses above).



5. Role for Greater Manchester partners

AGMA and its partners have no statutory role in commissioning or delivering the Work Programme. However local authorities and their partners have an important role to play in helping to ensure that the Work Programme provides the best possible support to local people, enabling the maximum number of residents to move from long-term worklessness and into sustained jobs.

Already, partners including health commissioners and providers have been active in helping prospective prime contractors to shape their Work Programme bids to better fit the needs of GM residents. This has included sharing information with the prospective prime contractors on:

What has/has not worked in relation to the Work Programme client group in the past
Specific local priorities and intelligence that can shape the development of provision under the Work Programme
Details of successful local services that
can be stopped, as the Work Programme will provide that service
can be aligned for free
can be co-located, or co-case managed
can be co-commissioned
or potentially ‘sold’ to preferred providers within the framework.

Events held in early December 2010 provided a forum for a wide range of GM partners to foster dialogue with the prospective Work Programme prime contractors. This enabled local authorities, working with the NHS and a range of other partners on behalf of their LSPs, to devise a clear ‘ask’ and ‘offer’ of the prospective prime contractors – i.e. setting out their borough’s priorities in relation to the Work Programme, but also sharing information about the kind of services and information that could be linked to the Work Programme in return.

6. Next steps

DWP and Jobcentre Plus will shortly start post-tender discussions with the prime contractors to agree the detail of how the contracts will operate. Meanwhile, further dialogue can soon begin between local partners and the prime contractors to help fine-tune Work Programme implementation. This can include:

Sharing local information – such as labour market data, links to employment growth opportunities, skills shortages, deprived neighbourhoods etc.
Confirming arrangements for aligning, co-locating, co-case managing and/or co-commissioning services with the Work Programme contractors in services including childcare, housing, skills, health, and advice services. This could include linking to/pooling budgets, something DWP are keen to encourage.
Working with the prime contractors to help identify potential gaps in Work Programme provision – both in terms of specialist support (e.g. advice, housing, health, skills, childcare etc) and geographical (priority neighbourhoods, remote areas etc)
Working on an ongoing basis with the prime contractors to improve performance – understanding and scrutinising performance data, identifying solutions to barriers/challenges that the Work Programme customers and their providers face

For health partners, opportunities include:

Capitalising on the fortnightly engagement that Work Programme contractors will have with some of the hardest-to-reach groups in society. Can this be used as an a route for health services to reach priority target groups?
Establishing referral mechanisms between Work Programme contractors and health services – how can the two services best link to provide the most efficient, timely and effective package of support to individuals with health conditions who are seeking employment?
Co-location with Work Programme providers, enabling better geographical service penetration and sharing premises costs.
Co-commissioning or sub-contracting health services with prime contractors. Identifying how existing local services can be aligned or expanded with the Work Programme for example building capacity of health services such as mental health and drugs & alcohol treatments which many of the work programme clients may need this type of intervention.

Over the coming weeks the selected prime contractors will work to confirm their partnership and supply chain arrangements. We expect further evolution of Work Programme models and supply chains to take place post-implementation, as prime contractors and their partners learn more about the needs of the client group.

In the meantime, local authorities and their partners are recommended to reconfirm the content of their ‘asks’ and ‘offers’ to the prime contractors in light of funding changes that have been implemented locally since late 2010.

More information about how local authorities and their partners are engaging with the prime contractors is available from the following colleagues, who have been leading Work Programme engagement within each of the ten Greater Manchester boroughs:

Bolton: Andy Walker 01204 336230 HYPERLINK "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Bury: Tracey Flynn 0161 253 6040 HYPERLINK "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Manchester: Angela Harrington 0161 234 1501 HYPERLINK "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Oldham: Jonathan Phillips 0161 770 5194 HYPERLINK "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Rochdale: Helen Chicot 01706 925925 HYPERLINK "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Salford: Emily Edwards 0161 793 2534 HYPERLINK "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Stockport: Nick Hill 0161 474 3736 HYPERLINK "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tameside: Kate O’Donnell 0161 342 2174 HYPERLINK "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Trafford: Debbie Thompson 0161 912 4085 HYPERLINK "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Wigan: Kevin Walsh 01942 828954 HYPERLINK "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


For detailed information about the Work Programme, please contact:

Gemma Marsh, Health and Worklessness Manager, New Economy, 0161 237 4061
HYPERLINK "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

James Farr, Acting Head of Employment, New Economy: 0161 237 4411
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Annex A: Work Programme customer groups
Payment Group Customer Group Time of Referral Basis for referral Greater Manchester residents, 2011-16 (estimate)** 1 Jobseekers Allowance customers aged 18 to 24 From 9 months of JSA claim Mandatory 27,000 2 Jobseekers Allowance customers aged 25 and over From 12 months of JSA claim Mandatory 75,000 3 Jobseeker Allowance - Early Access e.g.
aged 18 who have been NEET for 6 months (m)
those returning to JSA who were previously long-term JSA claimants (m)
ex-offenders, care leavers, carers, homeless (v) From 3 months of JSA claim (at discretion of JCP adviser) Mandatory (m) or voluntary (v) depending on circumstance 12,000 4 Jobseekers Allowance customers who have recently moved from Incapacity Benefit From 3 months of JSA claim Mandatory or voluntary depending on circumstance 6000 5 All Employment Support Allowance customers including contribution based, work related activity unlikely to be fit for work in the short term and support group customers. At any time Voluntary 17,000 6 Employment Support Allowance flow (income related) customers who are placed in the Work Related Activity Group, and Support Group At any time

When customers are expected to be fit for work in 3 months Voluntary

Mandatory 15,000 7 Ex-IB Employment Support Allowance (income related) customers who are placed in the Work Related Activity Group and Support Group (who have recently moved from Incapacity Benefit) At any time
When customers are expected to be fit for work in 3 months Mandatory or voluntary depending on circumstance 15,000 8 Incapacity Benefit / Income Support recipients At any time Voluntary 3500
** Estimates derived from DWP indicative volumes – not yet adjusted to reflect downgraded OBR growth forecast or regional variation Microsoft Office Word 97-2003 Document
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