Government Responds to Committee's Jobcentre Plus Concerns And Recommendations

Commenting on the Government response to the Committee’s report on The future of Jobcentre Plus, Committee Chair Rt Hon Frank Field MP said:  

“We remain concerned that the success of the DWP’s reforms to Jobcentre Plus are increasingly predicated on the performance and capability of Work Coaches. They are being asked to play both good cop in coaching and bad cop in sanction referrals. Moreover, they are being given greater personal autonomy to make judgements, while taking on a higher workload including a far larger proportion of complex and difficult cases. This is a major risk to the Department’s performance.”

Full inquiry details: The Future of Jobcentre Plus 

Committee Membership is as follows: 

Frank Field (Labour, Birkenhead) (Chair); Heidi Allen (Conservative, South Cambridgeshire); Mhairi Black (Scottish National Party, Paisley and Renfrewshire South); Ms Karen Buck, (Labour, Westminster North); James Cartlidge, (Conservative, South Suffolk); Neil Coyle (Labour, (Bermondsey & Old Southwark); Richard Graham (Conservative, Gloucester); Luke Hall, (Conservative, Thornbury and Yate); Craig Mackinlay (Conservative, South Thanet); Steve McCabe (Labour, Birmingham Selly Oak); Royston Smith, (Conservative, Southampton Itchen)