wrong again, desperado faun.
Exclusive: Welfare reforms under threat as private contractors struggle to find work for unemployed
Iain Duncan Smithโs welfare reforms could be under threat because of problems encountered by some private contractors finding work for unemployed people, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
Iain Duncan Smith is reported to be considering a 'temperature test' for pensioners who want to claim their ยฃ200 winter fuel payment Photo: Geoff Pugh By Rowena Mason, and Christopher Hope
10:00PM BST 31 Aug 2012
The welfare secretaryโs ยฃ1billion Work Programme pays private companies thousands of pounds for every benefit claimant they successfully help back to work.
However, Ingeus UK, one of the biggest welfare providers with 1,700 staff working from 74 offices across the UK, has admitted in a leaked email that basic targets are being missed.
It warned privately that it was not meeting the โcontractual minimumsโ set by the Department for Work and Pensions in at least one of its regions.
The news raises further questions about the Work Programme, following a series of fraud investigations into the past work of another major contractor, A4e.
The programme is aimed at getting the unemployed off the dole and into work. But it has run into difficulties.
Earlier this summer it emerged that a group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London by a security firm to work as unpaid stewards during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge.
In an email to staff in June, Jack Sawyer, an Ingeus UK director, admitted the firm was failing to meet โcontractual minimumsโ set by the Government.
In the email, sent to around 500 staff and sub-contractors in London and the East of England, Mr Sawyer said the firmโs current performance was โnot good enoughโ.
He complained that โthe current rate of improvement is slower than expected.
โWe need a special focus on improving performance because at present we are not meeting the contractual minimums expected of us by DWP.
โIt is important to note that there are a significant number of offices, and individuals, who are performing well enough to meet DWP standards.
โThere is, however, too large a gap between our higher and lower performing offices and individuals and too few offices are achieving their full potential at present.
โWhen looked at as a whole our current performance is not good enough.โ
Mr Sawyer added that it โhas been proven, to date on the Work Programme, that the expected levels of performance are achievableโ.
But he added that the company was introducing a new Performance Breakthrough Programme to improve Ingeusโ record at getting people back to work.
A spokesman for Ingeus said the company was โon course to meet our performance targets for the current performance period, April 2012 - March 2013โ.
She said Ingeus UK only was paid by DWP for successful placements after a client stayed in work for six months with a new employer.
She added: โEvery claim that we make for a person remaining in work is administered according to DWP rules - 100 per cent of outcomes are validated by the Department of Work and Pensionsโ checks.
โWe have recently been audited by the DWP Provider Assurance team and achieved the highest possible score.โ
