National Audit Office: Work coach shortage leads DWP to reduce support for Universal Credit claimants

The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) has reduced the level of support it offers to Universal Credit (UC) claimants due to a shortage of available work coaches at jobcentres, amid government plans to get more people into work and progressing in their careers, according to a new National Audit Office (NAO) report.^1,2

DWP relies on its network of 646 jobcentres across Great Britain to help people move into work and to support those already in work to progress. In November 2024, the government set out its plans for reforming employment support, including the role of jobcentres.³

DWP tailors jobcentre support for UC claimants based on their earnings and personal circumstances. The number of claimants in categories where DWP could require them to receive support from a work coach – which includes the ‘Intensive Work Search' category for those with the lowest earnings – grew from 2.6 million in October 2023 to 3 million in October 2024.⁴ DWP has increased the number of Intensive Work Search claimants by raising the earnings threshold.⁵

Work coaches play a critical role working directly with claimants to identify their needs and provide support.⁶ But partly due to funding constraints, DWP has not had enough work coaches to meet the expected demand for jobcentre support,⁷ with shortfalls in five of its seven regions in 2023-24.⁸DWP has also faced challenges in recruiting and retaining work coaches.

To help manage the shortfall, DWP has prioritised supporting claimants in the Intensive Work Search category and postponed plans to require ‘Light Touch' claimants to meet regularly with a work coach. This resulted in DWP needing an estimated 900 fewer work coaches in 2024-25 than it otherwise would have done.

DWP has also set out measures that jobcentres can implement if work coaches' caseloads are too high. From September 2023 to November 2024, 57% of jobcentres used these flexibilities to reduce the support they provide for claimants.⁹

The proportion of Intensive Work Search claimants who move into work each month has declined in the past two years to below pre-pandemic levels.^10,11,12

There is also substantial variation in performance across DWP's seven jobcentre regions and 37 districts. At district level, from December 2023 to November 2024, Birmingham and Solihull had the lowest average monthly into-work rate (5.5%) and Northern Scotland had the highest (10.8%).¹³

In November 2024, the government published a white paper that set out its plans for reforming employment support. The plans include creating a jobs and careers service, bringing together jobcentres with the National Careers Service in England.

The NAO recommends that DWP assesses the impact of the shortfall in work coaches on jobcentres' ability to provide people with the intended level of support, and uses the findings to inform the design of its future operating model for employment support.

DWP should also set out the information it will use to monitor jobcentres' performance so that it can identify and share good practice from those that are doing well, as well as improve how it measures and reports outcomes, with metrics covering factors such as the sustainability and quality of employment.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said:

“Helping people move into and progress in work is crucial to boosting productivity and reducing economic inactivity.

“As it takes forward the government's plans for reforming employment support, DWP should pay close attention to how it can make best use of its work coaches and ensure that people get the support they need.

“Given the key role jobcentres will play in supporting the government's ambition to increase the employment rate, DWP should also be transparent about how effective they are and evaluate the impact of its changes on the system of employment support.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. The report will be available on the NAO website via the following link from 00:01 Monday 31 March: https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/supporting-people-to-work-through-jobcentres/
2. UC is a benefit to help with living costs, paid to people who are out of work, who cannot work or who have a low income. In October 2024, there were 7.2 million people claiming UC.
3. See the government's white paper, Get Britain Working, whose aims include “bringing together skills and health to get more people into work and to get on in work” and achieving an 80% employment rate in the long term: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/get-britain-working-white-paper
4. 1.6 million in the Intensive Work Search category and 0.9 million in the Light Touch category. A further 0.5 million claimants may also be required by DWP to receive support based on their personal circumstances.
5. DWP increased the Administrative Earnings Threshold in stages, from the equivalent for an individual of nine hours per week at the National Living Wage in 2021-22 to 18 hours in 2024-25. DWP estimated that, as a result of the increases to the threshold, some 400,000 more people would be allocated to the Intensive Work Search category, rather than to the Light Touch category.
6. In 2023-24, DWP spent £1.2 billion on the direct costs of jobcentres. Staff costs comprised 93% of this spending.
7. DWP models the expected demand for support to determine the number of work coaches it needs to provide a consistent service. In 2022-23, DWP had some 2,300 (13.2% of total demand) fewer work coaches than it estimated it needed. This shortfall decreased to 1,400 (8.6%) in 2023-24 before increasing to 2,100 (10.9%) on average in the first six months of 2024-25.
8. The seven regions are: Southern England; London and Essex; Central England; North West England; North East England; Scotland; and Wales. Five of them had a shortfall of work coaches in 2023-24, with the largest percentage shortfall in Southern England (382 work coaches, 12.3% of those needed).
9. In September 2023, DWP introduced a national framework for local flexibility, which provides jobcentres with guidance on how to prioritise their resources in a consistent way. The framework sets out five measures that jobcentres can implement in order – for example, the first measure involves shortening the first meeting with claimants from 50 to 30 minutes.
10. The ‘into-work rate' is defined as the proportion of UC claimants in the Intensive Work Search category who have no earnings in one month and have earnings in the following month.
11. The average monthly into-work rate for claimants in the Intensive Work Search category reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic from 8.8% in 2018-19 to 7.2% in 2020-21. The rate then increased to 9.7% in 2021-22, but declined in the following two years, to 8.2% in 2023-24.
12. DWP's analysis suggests that, as well as the impact of relatively weak economic conditions on the labour market, changes in UC claimant volumes and composition may have also contributed to the decline in the into-work rate. For example, more claimants have been in the Intensive Work Search category for a year or longer and their prospects of finding jobs or increasing earnings may be weaker than others.
13. The performance of each jobcentre is influenced by several factors, including the local labour market, and some variation is to be expected.