What Find A Job Scheme

The political correspondent of the Telegraph, Rosa Prince, writing in the print edition today, reports that a billion-pound government scheme which commissions private companies to find work for people on incapacity benefit has so far fallen 73 percent below the target set. By the end of 2008, the scheme, called Pathways to Work, was due to have delivered 73,200 jobs but figures indicate it will be on target to find just 20,100.

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions admitted the results were disappointing, but said it was too soon to measure how well the programme would work. She said (yes, the telegraph did say spokesman when it is a woman concerned - tad non-pc that - no?) "This is why our Welfare Reform Bill sets out new powers so we can ensure people are required to engage with our work programmes".

So, having wasted a billion pounds of taxpayers money, they are now introducing another bill that should, logically, have been introduced at the time the Rt. Hon. Andrew Smith presented the Pathways to Work Bill to Parliament in November 2002. 

One wonders how much of our money the Government can waste with the Welfare Reform Bill, prior to getting their P45?