Employment Schemes

(asked on 25th November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether work coaches are given a set amount of time in a working day to carry out duties other than face-to-face appointments with claimants.


Answered by
Mims Davies Portrait
Mims Davies
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 30th November 2021

Throughout the pandemic, Jobcentres remained open for claimants who required face-to-face support. From April, Jobcentres in England, Scotland and Wales returned to their pre-lockdown opening hours and restarted face-to-face appointments, in accordance with government guidelines.

Work Coaches manage their diaries to ensure that they are supporting their claimants back into work, whilst also allowing time for admin and other duties. The amount of time allocated to carry out duties other than face-to-face appointments will vary, depending on the needs of individual claimants.

There is no maximum number of face-to-face appointments a full-time Work Coach is expected to deliver in one day. The number each day is determined by the circumstances of each claimant and the type of appointment being conducted. If a Work Coach is not available due to annual leave, sick leave, training, or any other reason, the Work Coach Team Leader will manage the situation to ensure that claimants continue to receive the appropriate level of support.

For each of the last six months, the total number of claimants attending a face-to-face appointment in a Jobcentre is as follows:

May

292,185

June

1,010,005

July

1,213,603

August

1,265,330

September

1,533,495

October

1,625,474

Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The data should therefore be treated with caution.

Reticulating Splines