Support to incapacity benefits claimants through Pathways to Work
13 September 2010
First Report of Session 2010-11
The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:
“The Department for Work and Pensions deserves credit for attempting to tackle the intractable problem of moving people from incapacity benefits into work. But its key programme for doing so, Pathways to Work, was not well implemented and has had limited effect.
“For over a decade the number of incapacity benefit claimants has remained at over 2.5 million; and nearly 1.5 million have been receiving benefits for more than five years. But, between 2005 and 2009, the number of claimants went down by just 125,000. No one knows by how much Pathways, which has so far cost over £750 million, contributed to this reduction.
“What we did establish is that the carrots offered were far less effective than the sticks employed.
“We found a number of mistakes in the programme which must not be repeated in future.
· Pathways was introduced without rigorous evaluation of the pilots, leading to markedly unrealistic projections by the mainly private sector providers of what they could achieve.
· Private providers’ performance was universally poor in helping claimants required to go on the programme –worse than Jobcentre Plus areas. They tended to cherry pick their clients and still achieved only one third of the targets for mandatory participants.
“As the Department develops its new Work Programme, it must ensure value for money by making good use of Jobcentre Plus and maintaining a sustainable balance between public, private and voluntary providers in its efforts to reduce the number of incapacity benefit claimants.”
Margaret Hodge was speaking as the Committee published its 1st Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Department for Work and Pensions (the Department) and two major providers, examined why Pathways has failed to get significant additional numbers of incapacity benefits claimants into work and how the lessons from Pathways can be applied to the new Work Programme.
During 2008–09, the Department paid £12.6 billion in incapacity benefits to 2.6 million people who were unable to work because of disability or ill health. The Pathways to Work programme was launched nationally between 2005 and 2008 to help reduce the number of incapacity benefit claimants through targeted support and an earlier medical assessment. It is delivered by private contractors in 60% of districts, with Jobcentre Plus providing the service in the remainder. By March 2010, the programme had cost an estimated £760 million. The numbers on incapacity benefits reduced by 125,000 between 2005 and 2009. Pathways contribution to this reduction has been much more limited than planned.
The Department’s intention of reaching a group of people who had never before been required to participate in employment support was admirable, but we found that the programme has had limited impact and was not well implemented. Early medical assessments appear to have had some success in moving people off incapacity benefits, although the Department does not monitor whether all these people move into work or onto other benefits. In other areas money has not been spent effectively. Private providers have seriously underperformed against their contracts and their success rates worse than Jobcentre Plus even though private contractors work in easier areas with fewer incapacity claimants and higher demand for labour.
We are concerned that Pathways was introduced without effective piloting and rigorous evaluation of its likely impact. The early evaluation, which suggested 25% of participants would find work, was flawed as it included people who made an inquiry about the benefit but then did not go on to actually claim the benefit and, in the pilot areas, participate in Pathways. This gave an over-optimistic impression of what the programme could achieve, which then contributed to a lack of realism in the bids submitted by providers and the targets set in their contracts.
Contractors have universally failed by considerable margins to meet their contractual targets for helping claimants who are required to go through Pathways. They have performed worse than Jobcentre Plus areas, although recent improvements have narrowed the difference. Despite being paid £100 million in 2008–09, providers claim not to have made a profit from their contracts. The Department agreed to pay £24 million in service fees early in view of contractor cash flow problems, although we consider the need for this was questionable given the large size of some of the organisations involved. The Department had an objective to build a healthy market, but has failed to develop an adequate understanding of the supply chain. It has not monitored how well prime contractors are sharing rewards and risks with the more than 80 specialist sub-contractors involved, and we have concerns that effective small private and voluntary organisations working in local communities are being asked to take an unfair share of the risk by prime contractors.
The Department should consider the evidence of our enquiries thoroughly before embarking on its new Work Programme. It should ensure good value for money by making good use of Jobcentre Plus resources and maintaining a sustainable balance between public, private and voluntary providers to allow proper competition and a good basis for comparing performance.
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