As the government introduces payment by results for prisoner rehabilitation, Channel 4 News looks at how the new scheme will work.
We take a look back at the lowlights of 2012 with damned lies and statistics coming thick and fast from across the political spectrum.
The Work Programme dominates Prime Minister’s Questions – with Labour leader Ed Miliband saying it’s a “historic first” because “you’re more likely to get a job if you’re not on the programme”.
Although we are only one year into a two-year scheme, today’s Work Programme figures are bad news for the Department for Work and Pensions – and the numbers for ill and disabled people are even worse.
Jackie Long
The Work Programme figures are not a disaster, says the employment minister. But not one of the 18 providers met the government’s end of first year minimum target on sustainable work.
Jackie Long
The company and Work and Pensions insisted the figures we broadcast were misleading and incomplete and we should wait for their official numbers. Well the wait is nearly over.
“All your numbers are wrong,” former A4e boss Emma Harrison told Channel 4 News after leaked figures showed the company found work for four in 100 people. But official figures contradict her claims.
After a Channel 4 News investigation revealed that A4E has failed to meet its Work Programme targets, the head of one charity involved in the programme claims it may now be unsustainable.
The background The government launched the Work Programme in June last year, calling it the biggest welfare-to-work initiative in UK history. Is it working? With more than 2.5 million people unemployed, there’s a huge amount riding on that question. And the government now says it wants to export the same kind of model – outsourcing…
A4e received £46m from the taxpayer in the first year of the government’s flagship Work Programme – despite failing to meet minimum targets for getting the long-term unemployed into work.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Jackie Long discuss the interview with Emma Harrison former chairman of A4e, and major shareholder on Channel 4 News tonight.
Exclusive: In her first TV interview since stepping down from A4e Emma Harrison tells Channel 4 News that she was “bullied out of a job”.
Jackie Long
Social Affairs Editor Jackie Long investigates what the numbers supplied by the government say about the success of its Work Programme.
Even if the government did absolutely nothing to help them, a certain percentage of people would find work off their own bat. The Work Programme can only be said to be “working” – or having any effect at all – if providers are doing better than this “non-intervention” rate.
Jackie Long
The latest figures obtained by Channel 4 News on A4e’s record in getting people jobs for the government’s Work Programme raise many questions.