The National Audit Office (NAO) has released a report today which highlights how the DWP’s work coach system is failing to cope with demand even now, without the massive increase in clients which the Pathways To Work Green paper will bring.
The NAO’s report Supporting people to work through jobcentres finds that:
- 2,100 fewer work coaches were employed on average by DWP than it estimated it needed in the first six months of 2024-25.
- 57% of jobcentres reduced their support for claimants between September 2023 and November 2024 when work coach caseloads were too high.
- The proportion of universal credit (UC) claimants in lowest earning category who move into work each month has declined in the past two years to below pre-pandemic levels.
Even the government’s plan to fling large amounts of money at employment schemes may not help, given that the report found that the DWP faces challenges in recruiting and retaining work coaches.
According to the report, “the DWP has also had fewer work coaches than it has had funding for, which it attributes to factors such as challenges with recruiting and retaining staff. We reported in July 2024 that resourcing to meet demand is a key area of focus for DWP and that it finds it difficult to retain staff in critical frontline roles, such as work coaches. The turnover rate for DWP executive officers working in jobcentres, including work coaches, was 8.5% in 2023-24.”
Rachel Reeves is currently reassuring MPs that claimants who lose their PIP as a result of the proposed Green Paper changes will be able to make up lost income by moving into work, supported by a new army of work coaches.
Judging by this NAO report, the DWP may struggle to even recruit work coaches, let alone discover a way that they can move people with disabilities and long-term health conditions into work with hugely reluctant employers.
