Jobcentre Plus
Work and Pensions
John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what comparative assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of private welfare providers and that of Jobcentre Plus.
Chris Grayling (Minister of State (Employment), Work and Pensions; Epsom and Ewell, Conservative)
The Department has made no comparative assessment of the effectiveness of private welfare providers and that of Jobcentre Plus.
There is clear evidence on the cost-effectiveness of Jobcentre Plus. A report by NIESR concluded that the introduction of Jobcentre Plus increased the rate at which claimants left benefit and moved into work and. increased employment, with the impact of Jobcentre Plus estimated to increase GDP by 0.1% by 2015.
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2011-2012/rrep781.pdf
The Department has commissioned an evaluation of the Work programme and the first results will be available later this year. We expect the Work programme to deliver higher performance and deliver better value for money than previous provision.
The Department has published a range of evaluation reports regarding the effectiveness of support delivered by Jobcentre Plus and external providers, including the new deals, pathways to work and the Jobcentre Plus interventions regime which can be found via: