The Way to Work scheme set out to support 500,000 people into employment by reducing jobseekers’ benefits after four weeks unless they apply for work outside their normal occupation. Figures from the Office for National Statistics released last week showed the number of unemployed people finding work fell by 148,000 compared to the six months before Way to Work began, despite a record number of job vacancies. The government also faces questions about why it set a target of 500,000 when, on average, nearly 1 million unemployed people have found work during similar periods each year since 2001. On July 28, the official statistics watchdog challenged the Department for Work and Pensions over why it had failed to explain how its target was set or measured, a month after the government’s triumphant claims. Ed Humpherson, director general of the Office for Statistics Regulation, wrote: “There is no clear explanation of how the Way to Work target was set, how it will be measured and the methods used to support claims … that the target has been met. “It is difficult to publicly attribute and quantify the impact of a campaign like Way to Work in the absence of a clearly defined and published target and details of how the target will be measured and reported, in the first place. “Measuring government programs in a robust and transparent manner is important and the statistics/data on which any measurement is based should adhere to the principles of reliability, high quality and public value. The manner in which the Department has shared the information in this case does not support these principles.” At the end of January, Johnson announced that a “drive to work” would help 500,000 into work from Universal Credit intensive jobseeker, or Jobseeker’s Allowance, at a time when there were a record 1.2 million job vacancies. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Five months later, the DWP tweeted: “We did it!” and Johnson listed his achievements in the House of Commons on July 6, the day before he announced his resignation, as including “helping half a million people into work through the Way to Work Scheme”. Observer analysis of seasonally adjusted figures from the ONS Labor Force Survey shows that 867,310 people moved from unemployment to employment between January and June, with the majority finding work before March. In the previous six months, 1,015,954 people moved to work. The average number for January through June since records began in 2001 is 948,000. The ONS figures include “people who are not claimants – for example many married women who commute to work – and have no contact with the Jobcentre. That said, there is obviously a lot of overlap [with unemployment benefit claimants]said Dr David Webster, from the University of Glasgow. He added that the DWP had never published data on people finding work after being on Universal Credit’s intensive job search team, which represents most of the unemployed. Way to Work had no separate budget and its central policy change was to reduce jobseekers’ benefits within four weeks rather than three months if they were not judged to be trying hard enough to find work by putting themselves forward for places work outside their normal occupation. A five-year study published in January showed that benefit penalties are counterproductive and Therese Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, has blocked research assessing their effectiveness – one of several welfare reports the government has been accused of hiding . Stephen Timms, Labor chair of the work and pensions select committee, said he would examine the evidence as part of an inquiry when MPs return in the autumn. “The refusal to expose the evidence behind the allegation, unfortunately, is tantamount at this time,” he said. “We will be trying to get to the bottom of our inquiry into the government’s jobs plan, which will start when parliament returns next month. “Claiming that their policy has been successful seems like business as usual. There might be something else we’re missing. If there is, they must tell us what it is.” The DWP said it would respond in due course to the statistics regulator and that unemployment was low, so there were fewer people to find work. A DWP spokesman said: “Way to Work has successfully supported half a million people into work, helping employers fill the vacancies the economy needed to recover and boosting incomes, as people can be up to £6,000 better off working full-time than not working for benefits. “When there are fewer unemployed people overall in the labor market, the number of people moving from unemployed to employed is understandably lower. In the run-up to the Way to Work campaign, the unemployment rate had fallen below pre-pandemic levels, meaning 500,000 was a far-reaching and ambitious target.”
