WORK PROGRAM / RESTART. Nothing changes. Blast for the future. Posted on January 29, 2013 by johnny void | 145 Comments

The Work Programme Model is Broken and Rewards Corporate Idleness
Posted on January 29, 2013 by johnny void | 145 Comments

Image removed by sender. workfare-real-crimeLast night’s Panorama went some way to exposing the floundering Work Programme, Iain Duncan Smith’s fantasy scheme that is currently having no impact on long term unemployment beyond bullying, demoralising and sanctioning claimants.

What Panorama didn’t touch on was the reason for the shambles, which goes far beyond a few bad apples in welfare-to-work companies.  The entire model of the Work Programme is broken and based on the lie that unemployment is caused by unemployed people.  Ironically this has led to perverse incentives which mean that welfare-to-work companies can best profit from the scheme by doing the least work possible.

As described in Panorama, companies are paid large fees on the Work Programme should someone find a job and remain employed for six months.  The fee rises considerably if somebody is disabled, or faces other disadvantages such as homelessness.  Participants are mandated to the Work Programme for two years, with a further year’s tracking period under which job outcome payments can be claimed.

In three years, even some of the hardest to help may turn their lives around.  Many people will find a couple of year’s job hunting finally pays off and find work completely under their own steam.  A few people on sickness benefits will get better and re-enter the job market, as might single parents as their children grow up.  These are all people who would have got a job without any help whatsoever from private sector poverty pimps like A4e and G4S.  Despite this, every one of these job outcomes is worth thousands to welfare -to-work companies.

If that wasn’t enough, welfare-to-work companies have been receiving £400 every time someone walks through the door, rising to £600 if that person is on disability or sickness benefits.  And this is where it gets profitable.  Welfare-to-work companies usually induct people in groups, often quite large ones.  If a welfare-to-work company inducts just ten people a week then they can earn a whopping £200,000 minimum over the course of a year.  In terms of staff costs, this is about a day and a half’s work a week at the very most.  There would be ample time in the week for just a single staff member to then have a one to one session with every inductee and siphon out the small percentage of participants they think they might be able to help get a job.

For this lucky few – which is probably only around ten percent – welfare-to-work companies have unprecedented powers to use workfare and benefit sanctions in an attempt to micro-manage them into employment.  Usually they fail.  When they succeed it’s quite likely the person would have got a job anyway.  What this means is that all the resources of the Work Programme are being directed at those who probably don’t need any help.

But the welfare-to-work company has a problem, which is the 90% of people they refer to as Lying Thieving Bastards who are still on their books.  In a buoyant employment market, then it might be profitable to cream off the next top ten percent.  But at present the jobs market is far from healthy.  Most of the alleged fall in unemployment has been down to workfare schemes, part time work and casual self-employment.

The large Work Programme contractors have been around a while now.  They know, even if they can never admit it, that employers just aren’t hiring people who are sick or disabled, lack experience or have been out of work a long time.  They certainly aren’t hiring heroin addicts, street drinkers, those with long criminal records or complex mental health problems – the type of people Iain Duncan Smith seemed to think the Work Programme would magically ‘fix’.

With very little chance of any further profit from the majority of Work Programme participants, welfare-to-work companies do what any other business would.  They cut costs.

This is why many Work Programme participants only get phone interviews, or invited in to see providers once every two months.  The less welfare-to-work companies pay out in wages, they more money they make.  It is not inconceivable that a small Work Programme office, with 2 or 3 full time staff, could generate a quarter of a million a year just by creaming off the most employable and abandoning the rest.  Every new staff member means taking a financial risk on the 90% who probably won’t get jobs anyway.  With job outcomes so thin on the ground even for ‘job ready’ participants, it’s just not worth the risk.  Better to sit on their arses and let the bucks come rolling in.

There is a problem ahead for the welfare to work companies however, which is that the start fees are reducing a by £100 a year.  That means in 2013 new starts will only be worth £300 – still enough to make a profit doing nothing, but not quite as lucrative.

Predictably the welfare-to-work companies are already blaming the failure of the Work Programme on the lack of money in the system.  These companies are large enough, and co-ordinated enough, to bring down the Work Programme, and both they and the DWP know it.  Whether they are successful in their quest for more cash is simply a question of who blinks first.

The whole sorry saga points to the impending and inevitable social chaos being created by the neo-liberal drive to marketise and privatise all public services.  Iain Duncan Smith threw open welfare-to-work provision to the free market, giving businesses unprecedented powers to control claimants lives and huge tax payer funded rewards for success.  The market responded by demonstrating that it is just not profitable to devote resources to the hardest to help.

Unemployment is not caused by unemployed people, but by intense competition for jobs due to a flat-lined economy.  Grasping employers don’t want to take risks on hiring long term unemployed people, especially when they don’t have to.  Even in an economic boom, it would still be unprofitable to support the hardest to help – those whose lives are shattered by illness, homelessness, addiction and often desperately sad life experiences and childhoods.

The market has spoken, and it doesn’t give a fuck about the poor.  The problems created by capitalism will never be fixed by more capitalism.  The tragedy is that this failed model is already being exported to the probation services and social care.  It is a naked wealth grab by the rich, who can’t even look at the poorest and most vulnerable without wondering how they can make a profit from them.

Thanks #Oneman.

As you mentioned this piece was published in Jan 2013. And if you hadn't been a date on the posting, you could believe it was written this year (2023).

And the worst thing is the circus , keeps going on. You could imagine when the Retread scheme is replaced in 2025? The replacement program/scheme, will just be the Work Program/Restart scheme. Under a new name & fresh coat of paint, yet underneath just the same old story . With another Billion pounds of money being wasted?

The Work Promgramme what a load of crap that was. I was put on this back in 2011 and it was run by those crooks A4E remember them. LOL. The Work Programme was famous for creaming and parking. I was parked up on the first appointment, I remember being in a computer room with about 20 others it was a joke, we should have been job hunting on those computers but everyone was playing games or chatting on Facebook. I remember one guy just playing Solitaire all day this made me laugh as I was sat next to him on my computer on ebay. I also used their phones to chat to my mate on his moblie to run up their bill. I'm an old hat to these schemes now as soon as I walk into any of them I know I will be parked.

"It was a joke, we should have been job hunting on those computers but everyone was playing games or chatting on Facebook. I remember one guy just playing Solitaire all day this made me laugh as I was sat next to him on my computer on "...

The only trouble now #Ford..1970 is they block you from accessing these site's.
Also from what I've read, seems as these scheme/programs are under performing . These Provider's are becoming more Draconian ...

Strange at my last job, I had constant reviews/KPI ( key performance indicators) on how much work I was doing, micro managing. Yet it seems these Provider's are just given a blank cheque, regardless of results... Hence the same company's, providing the same service, on the latest scheme/programs .

Pintel wrote:The only trouble now #Ford..1970 is they block you from accessing these site's.
Also from what I've read, seems as these scheme/programs are under performing . These Provider's are becoming more Draconian ...

Take your own laptop with you, at least you know the security of your own hardware.  Use your mobile phone as a hotspot if you have the data, or try to use a VPN.  Although I don't use the Opera web browser, it does have a built-in VPN - I'd happily use Opera for a few hours to burn up their bandwidth.

On my Restart course, I would download massive files, like ISO images from Microsoft, programs from iPlayer, torrents - because they were using a 4G router with an O2 sim card in it, people were soon complaining that they couldn't complete the online tasks because it was so slow.  You should have seen the panic on tutor's face who been outsourced from another city/town/village at the thought of having to send everybody home to do the tasks.  I quickly slowed the downloads as I realised I could charge my powerbank, phone and laptop up for free - plus they were keeping us all warm for free during winter, not to mention a free lunch.

Remember the free stamps and bus passes I used to take as many....
No joke guys to avoid Job Clubs say in your "CV" your a computer hacker and using their Laptop open up "CMD" command prompt type in ipconfig just for fun they will soon say you never allowed back did this in ingeus never went to another one advisor probably said keep a close eye on him professional hacker.️


***Top tip how to get restart provider fine by bbc dirtiest way.***
1. Make a new bbc account with a new email address never use your own account bbc tracks your email address and your postcode what you are watching and send out warning emails/letters to your address asking you to pay your tv licence or face a fine upto £1000.
2. Google your provider where you attend the restart office "postcode and address " input that into your new bbc iplayer account hope they haven't paid for any TV licence sadly we don't have a database to check who or not paid for TV licence unlike car vehicles on the road you can literally check any cars in the UK for having no MOT/TAX by inputting their registration plate online...


***Restart Internet provider fined for uploading copyright material***
Another one get them fined take your own laptop into the restart job club load up all the latest Hollywood movies torrents you downloaded at home using VPN for safety of course.
Login into the wifi network restart use their ip address to share upload copyright material load up uTorrent hide it in the background on your laptop let it run while you doing your job search spend hours job searching.
The copyright holders will issue the restart Internet provider a warning for sharing copyright material without the owner permission.️️

***Make sure your not uploading maxed out on utorrent the network guys would know when the whole network comes to a crawl the network guys only know what Mac address computer using the most traffic on the wifi network the best thing using your own laptop restart wouldn't know what your are doing with all the Internet traffic unless they installed a spyware on your machine.****

****Restart laptops are probably installed with keyloggers, spyware to monitor claimants activities including passwords, logins during job clubs this why I don't trust them don't even try and file share or watch bbc iplayer on it you will get caught.***

Book yourself into plenty job clubs take your own laptop get these bastards fined isn't long before they ban you using your own tablet and laptop or even using their own wifi networks.

While I am not encouraging this type of behaviours #Coconutxone🤫.
I was on one 'job search club', where one fella was a 'computer whizz'. Strange as when ever he was logged in, their computers developed 'problems'🤨.... While I not suggesting he did anything, it certainly crossed my mind .
I never got to thank the fella....

At the restart office we have a pub nextdoor I have the wifi password might just sit inside my local pub after the appointment downloading nonstop make their network to a crawl.

Pintel wrote:While I am not encouraging this type of behaviours #Coconutxone🤫.
I was on one 'job search club', where one fella was a 'computer whizz'. Strange as when ever he was logged in, their computers developed 'problems'🤨.... While I not suggesting he did anything, it certainly crossed my mind .
I never got to thank the fella....

One year studying BTEC and network teaches you plenty knowledge.

Also studying on the Job centre "CIS" system have a good read plenty sackings.
https://github.com/dwp/design-system-community-backlog/issues/42
https://www.scribd.com/document/97289634/Sackings-mount-over-DWP-data-leaks