New Deal (United Kingdom) - Criticisms

Criticisms

Critics claim that participants fail to see the value in the programmes, and the programmes are not effective in equipping participants for work. Critics have tried to establish that attendees often end up feeling less motivated than they did to begin with. The sufficiency of the staffing for these programs has also been called into question.

Another criticism is that unemployed people attending the Options stage of the NDYP are not counted towards the Government's official figures for people of working age who are claiming unemployment benefit. Some say that New Deal was designed with this in mind, to allow the Government to release lower figures for unemployment. However the NDYP has led to a considerable decrease in JSA claims for 18- to 24-year-olds.

Statistics of NDYP states that almost 1 in 3 people on NDYP leave benefits without securing a job or receiving education or training. 42.89% went in to employment (no mention of sustainability), 25.84% stayed on benefits and 31.27% never reclaimed benefit or found employment.

Moreover the statistics tool on the DWP website has been criticised as difficult to use, which reduces the transparency of the programme. The DWP data shows that around 30% of leavers of the NDYP prior to 2005 left to an "unknown destination". According to the DWP data, around 42% went into employment while 44% of leavers of the NDYP remained on benefits.

Another criticism of New Deal concerns the Gateway To Work two week course towards the end of the Gateway stage of New Deal (NDYP only). Even though new participants see the course as helpful in the search for employment, other participants who have done the course before see it as pointless and a waste of time if they have already attended it, but are forced to go on it to continue claiming Jobseeker's Allowance. The Option stage has also drawn a lot of criticism since this stage is when the New Deal puts participants with a training provider to find them work placements. This stage lasts for 13 weeks (26 weeks for NDYP) and it has been known that the work placements see the participants as free labour and don't hire them after the Option stage is finished. This stage has also been criticised by participants who the New Deal makes them work full time with the work placements for only £60 a week and thinks that they should only work part time to get better experience, though it depends on which Option the client is participating in.

Further criticisms have been aimed at the increasing number of 'retreads' on the NDYP. Figures suggest that around one third of all NDYP clients have returned to the program for a second time after another 6-month period of sustained unemployment. Whether the figure of a third displays the program's success is debatable. It is for these retread figures that the 2 in 5 people securing employment is probably unsustainable zero-hour agency jobs as highlighted in Episode 2 of Benefit Busters on Channel 4.