28.01.14
Jobseeker assessments ‘haphazard’ – MPs
Jobcentre Plus (JCP) must be incentivised to help jobseekers into work, not just off benefits, MPs have warned. The Work and Pensions Committee (WPC) called for an immediate revision to the JCP’s key performance indicators.
Other recommendations include a more thorough initial assessment of claimants’ barriers to employment to identify the required level of support and to allocate claimants to separate work streams to ensure those with the greatest need get more intensive support.
The use of sanctioning was questioned by the committee, who recommend an independent review, as well as monitoring the extent of financial hardship caused by sanctions.
Ahead of changes to both funding and workload for the JCP, the MPs concluded that it is not currently possible to assess whether the service will be sufficiently resourced to deliver policy changes, such as the introduction of Universal Credit.
Dame Anne Begg MP, chair of the committee, said: “People can leave benefit for a range of reasons, not all of them positive. JCP’s performance is currently measured primarily by the proportion of claimants leaving benefit by specific points in their claims. This takes no account of whether they are leaving benefit to start a job or for less positive reasons, including being sanctioned or simply transferring to another benefit. We believe this risks JCP hitting its targets but missing the point. JCP must be very clearly incentivised to get people into work, not just off benefits.
“The processes by which JCP currently establishes claimants’ needs are haphazard and prone to missing crucial information about a person’s barriers to working, including homelessness and drug dependency. A more thorough and systematic approach to assessing claimants’ needs is required.
“An unprecedented number of claimants were sanctioned in the year to June 2013. Whilst conditionality is a necessary part of the benefit system, jobseekers need to have confidence that the sanctioning regime is being applied appropriately, fairly and proportionately and the Government needs to assure itself that sanctioning is achieving its intended objective of incentivising people to seek work.”
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “No one joined the employment service to be in conflict with the people they are there to help, but this government is seeking to punish the unemployed, sick and disabled.
“This political pressure is making life intolerable for claimants and staff alike and we fully support the MPs’ call for a much wider review of the effect that sanctions are having.”
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Image c. Rui Vieira/ PA Wire