Jobs scheme is working says Minister

Employment Minister Chris Grayling published new figures showing that around one in four of those who joined the Work Programme a year ago had stayed off benefits for at least three successive months.

The signs were that the figure could have risen to 30 per cent, which means the multibillion-pound scheme was “on track” to deliver the help Ministers had hoped for.

Mr Grayling said: “People I meet in the industry already say that performance is well ahead of where it was at the same stage with the Flexible New Deal from which it took over, and this data gives further encouragement.”

Mr Grayling hit back at criticism from Labour, which branded the Work Programme a “failure”, saying the number of people out of work for over two years has more than doubled since the election.

The Minister accused Gordon Brown’s government of “hiding” the true level of long-term youth unemployment, insisting that the coalition was now publishing correct data.

Yesterday’s study, among 28,600 people who started the Work Programme last June, showed that half had signed off benefit at some stage, 7,000 had a continuous 13-week break in claims and a “significant” proportion, 14 per cent, had not claimed benefits for 26 weeks.