Government watchdog critical of New Deal scheme

The government’s welfare-to-work programme New Deal for
young people may have achieved its target of placing young people
into work ahead of schedule, but many of them would have found work
anyway, the National Audit Office claims, writes Katie
Leason.

A quarter of a million young people were helped into work by
September 2000, rising to 339,000 by October 2001. But the NAO
report estimates that only 20,000 of these would not have got a job
without the New Deal. Each job cost around £5,000.

The programme was introduced in April 1998 to help long term
unemployed 18-24 year olds move away from benefits and into
employment.

Head of the NAO Sir John Bourn said the programme had had a
beneficial effect on the economy, but warned that, in the future,
it might need to focus on a smaller group of unemployed young
people, many of whom face severe or multiple barriers to employment
such as homelessness, criminal records, drug or alcohol dependency,
and a lack of basic literacy and numeracy skills.

To view the full document ‘The New Deal for Young
People’
click here