The Work Programme 



Despite being the “flagship“ welfare-to-work scheme of the Conservative-led coalition government, and then the present Conservative government from May 2015, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced in November 2015 that it was replacing the Work Programme and Work Choice with a new Work and Health Programme for the longer-term unemployed and those with health conditions. The DWP also announced that it would not be renewing Mandatory Work Activity and Help to Work which included “Community Work Placements."



The Work Programme closed at the end of March 2017. Work Choice will continue for a few months later. Funding for the new Work and Health programme will be around £100 million over four years, around a quarter of the sum spent on the Work Programme. Kate Bell, head of economics and social affairs at the TUC, told LRD she hopes it will provide tailored and better support to help people move back into work rather than sanctioning them, but that “we will have to wait and see”.