The work programme, another big con!?

There are times when I like to think of myself as quite enlightened but I’m beginning to feel that I am terribly naïve, particularly when it comes to the government and its schemes. The work program for example, is it only me that not only assumed that it would be independent of the JSA programme but run by people who had some understanding and expertise in health and disability related issues.

But it appears that everyone is being dealt with by people who don’t appear to have such training or expertise and are also not seeking the advice of the organisations they enlisted to help them. I’m astounded.

This program was intended to help me and others like me, however it seems to me after only a cursory glance to have had very obvious and catastrophic flaws yet it went ahead anyway.

It seems ridiculous to me to put people who are not fit for work as they are in the work related activity group in the same group with people who are and expect the same program to work for them both. They are two groups with very different requirements to get them back to work. The ESA group is likely (although not entirely) made up of people who are still undergoing some treatment for their illness and the other not. They will have different problems relating to illness as they are still unfit for work and they seem to have completely missed this. The work program should be about working towards being fit for work and all this seems to do is ask them to find jobs. That’s not the biggest problem these people are facing, being unfit for work is and how exactly is looking for a job going to help any of them with that?

And really they thought that paid incentives would be enough to overcome the problems with helping the disadvantaged back into work when any additional training would be paid out of that fee and their commission. The fact that the bonuses would be bigger does not change that they would have to share it.

I feel very much that any business man worth his salt is going to work out how to get the bucks coming in and marginalise those that weren’t going to turn a profit for them and it seems that’s exactly what many of them have done. And sadly this isn’t just going to apply to those coming from ESA either, many of the long term unemployed will also have big problems getting into work.

Do take the time to watch the panorama program found here if you haven’t already as it highlights exactly this problem, as well as others.
And as its producer Kate Ansell goes on to write for Ouch blog 

The figures are pretty stark: out of 68,000 ESA claimants placed on the Work Programme since it began, only 1,000 have found jobs lasting three months or more, a total well beneath the government's already not-very-ambitious targets for this particular group.

This table comes from the DWP statistics on the work program and shows the numbers of thousands of people who found work and kept it for 13 or 26 weeks entry dependant as bonuses were paid at different times for those from JSA and ESA groups)

Table 1.1 –Time Series of Work Programme job outcomes by payment group: September 2011 to July 2012 in thousands (exert, column for Prison entrants removed as none achieved payments)

Payment Group	Total	JSA 18 to 24	JSA 25 and over	JSA Early Entrants	JSA Ex-IB	ESA Vols	New ESA claims	ESA Ex-IB	IB/IS Vols
Sep-11	0.02	.	.	0.02	-	-	-	-	-
Oct-11	0.31	.	.	0.29	-	-	0.01	-	-
Nov-11	0.60	.	.	0.55	0.01	0.01	0.03	-	-
Dec-11	1.11	0.01	0.06	0.94	0.01	0.02	0.05	-	0.01
Jan-12	2.27	0.24	0.69	1.23	0.02	0.02	0.05	-	0.01
Feb-12	2.53	0.44	1.08	0.89	0.02	0.03	0.07	-	0.01
Mar-12	2.30	0.55	1.26	0.43	0.01	0.01	0.03	-	-
Apr-12	5.15	1.17	2.68	1.15	-	0.02	0.10	-	0.01
May-12	3.98	0.92	2.11	0.83	0.01	0.02	0.09	-	-
Jun-12	5.81	1.28	2.45	1.84	0.03	0.04	0.17	0.01	0.01
Jul-12	7.16	1.31	3.09	2.44	0.03	0.07	0.20	0.01	0.02
Total		5.92	13.42	10.61	0.14	0.24	0.8	0.02	0.07

Please note that if you add up the last 4 columns it comes to 1.13 which is more than the 1000 stated to have been employed I’m guessing this is because it has IS claimants in this category too. If 68000 people were referred to this program and only 31220 (45.9%) have actually gotten employment then it really isn’t very good. If you are in a the disadvantaged group this drops to 1.4%

So the figures are stark and disappointing although not unexpected but the question I am left with is

Would they have been worse without the work program?

And I am not sure they would, quoting figures to say how many achieved employment without showing figures of employment rates without the work program would have been a real help.

The other thing that springs to mind is that if so many charities and none profit organisations signed up to help then there was already a large number of people with expertise helping to get people back into work, what are their success rates?

The local MIND to me has had for many years a service that helps those with mental health issues find employment, it has run courses and I would be interested to know how much success they have had?

I guess the biggest difference between me and the government is that I never really felt that I was abandoned to living on benefit for the rest of my life. I mean they go on about how people get stuck and yes I’d say for some it’s definitely true; however I just do not see that that has anything to do with the person. I think it has everything to do with stigma and prejudice in/by the workplace. This can take many forms, for instance at one point there were stairs and steps everywhere and now they’re not. The change in the building environment has meant that now places are accessible and so more people with problems with them have become employed. There was no change in attitude within the people just the environment.

If you haven’t got the facility for large type or hearing loops then of course people who have problems with hearing and sight are going to have problems getting employment and until the workplace adjusts to having these facilities no amount of trying by these people is going to result in them getting a job.

And these are just physical or software changes: mental health is more about approach and attitude and that’s far more difficult to make people understand. It seems you’re asking the wrong people to make changes when it’s the workplace that has the problems.

In my opinion if you want people into work then you need to start working with them in the workplace to educate the employers about the skills the people have and the needs they have because no matter how you sell yourself or are prepared they are the ones that are making the decisions about what is or isn’t in the workplace, what is or isn’t tolerated or adjusted in the workplace.