DWP rolls out WorkWell despite no proof that it actually works well

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced the rollout of WorkWell. The scheme is supposedly going to get over 250,000 disabled people back into work. However, there’s no proof of it actually working at all, never mind well.

DWP and WorkWell forcing disabled people into work

According to the DWP, WorkWell will:

provide personalised, early help to people struggling with their health

The scheme will apparently connect claimants to physiotherapists and therapists. It seems a lot like trying to cure people of long-term conditions that can’t be cured, to be honest.

They will also help with workplace adjustments. As the Canary has extensively reported, there’s already a scheme that’s supposed to help with ‘workplace adjustments’. Conveniently, as the DWP rolls all this out, they’re quietly cutting the Access to Work program.

The programme is also being pushed towards people who have already been found too sick or disabled to work. So the department knows they are pushing vulnerable people into work instead of supporting them.

Work touted as a cure

This is furthered by the way DWP chief Pat McFadden talks about the scheme, saying:

Too often, people with health conditions are signed off sick without the support they need to stay in or return to work—and that doesn’t help anyone.

He continued:

Now we’re rolling this out nationwide—because supporting people to stay healthy and employed benefits individuals, businesses, and our economy.

More than anything, the DWP is willfully ignoring the fact that many disabled people just can’t work, no matter what. And they should be supported.

Streeting blames disabled people for NHS failings

The scheme is in collaboration with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC). Wes Streeting said:

We’re issuing millions of fit notes a year dismissing people as simply “not fit for work”. By combining health support with employment support in local communities, WorkWell can give people back their confidence, their purpose and their wellbeing.

Crucially, it also eases pressure on GPs and cuts waiting lists so we can build an NHS fit for the future.

Of course, Streeting is going to blame disabled people for the problems with the NHS. Not that it’s being systematically carved up by his private donors. A reminder that Streeting is also currently running a review on the effects of the “overdiagnosis” of mental health and neurodivergent conditions. The review focuses solely on the pressure this is putting on the NHS.

Something missing from the DWP stats

The department announced this week that, following a pilot which “supported” 25,000 into work, it will be rolled out tenfold nationally.

Alongside the announcement, the DWP gave the following stats:

• 59% of participants were out of work at their first appointment, with the others needing support to stay in work
• 28% were referred by their GP, 27% were self-referral and 24% from Jobcentre Plus
• 68% were aged 35 and over.

However, the eagle-eyed among you might’ve noticed what was missing from these stats. As Benefits and Work pointed out, these aren’t actually proof of its success.

No proof WorkWell actually works

Despite the DWP bragging that 25,000 people have been “supported” into work, it doesn’t say how many this is out of. Is this 25,000 out of 26,000 or out of 250,000? Is the success rate 90% or 10%?

We have no idea what this “workplace support” actually is and how many stayed in employment once they entered it. We have no idea of the fields they entered. If it was their chosen field or low-skilled, low-paying work.

It also, of course, doesn’t tell us how many disabled people were forced into this “voluntary” support, despite the DWP knowing they couldn’t work. And who were made to go through the humiliating rigmarole of applying for jobs they’d never be hired for. Because of course it doesn’t.

WorkWell is voluntary, for now

WorkWell is (for now) a voluntary scheme. So it’s important that disabled people remember they do not have to participate in it. No matter how much the job centre pushes it on you. However, there are fears that with the planned cutting of the Work Capability Assessment, it will be pushed on disabled people more.

It’s already been made abundantly clear that the DWP does not actually give a fuck about supporting disabled people into work. But by pushing ahead with a scheme called WorkWell that they can’t even prove works well, they’ve just shown how little they care. And how much of a farce they are.

Featured image via the Canary