With Jobcentre and private welfare to work staff being made redundant – what chance do the unemployed have?

We are a week away from the Government’s new welfare to work scheme called the Work Programme (basically Flexible New Deal with extras) going live in Wales.

Not that you would know from any Welsh media, political or current affairs debate or coverage as there has been precious little reporting of it beyond a post on the Bevan Foundation of the changes which Work & Pensions Minister Iain Duncan Smith has said is the greatest shake up of the welfare state since the Second World War.

The two Welsh providers chosen for the bidding process earlier this year are Working Links and Rehab Jobfit. Working Links has been active in welfare to work in Wales for about a decade and Rehab Jobfit is partnership between an Irish welfare to work provider and Interserve, a global support service and construction industry business.

But despite all the positive noises, it’s ironic that proposals which have been welcomed by many in the welfare to work industry and designed to help the neediest job seekers back in to employment could result in thousands of staff being made redundant.

The Department of Work & Pensions expect there will be 2,400 Jobcentre Plus staff cut across the UK (a 20% reduction )and Channel 4 news last week claim 10,000 could be made redundant at private sector welfare to work providers across the country (a 33% reduction), pretty grim news indeed.

All of this raises two questions, first can the Work Programme and it providers who are doing most of the heavy lifting succeed with less staff and higher volumes of clients?

And secondly particularly in Wales where unemployment is a constant feature, a fact reinforced today by the ICAEW/Grant Thornton UK Business Confidence Monitor highlighting worrying weakness in the Welsh labour market – will there be enough jobs created to take the slack of redundancies and the current unemployed in Wales who number 112,000?Any source