22 May 2009
By Paul Gosling
Only 7% of participants in a Northern Ireland New Deal programme went on to sustained employment, a report from the NI Audit Office has revealed.
The Preparation for Employment Programme was a work placement scheme that dealt with people on the New Deal who were over 25 and long-term unemployed. The NIAO report, published on May 13, said that more should have been done to increase the number who went on to permanent employment.
New Deal 25+ was initiated in 1998, and 74,000 people have participated in it since then at a cost of £69m. Between 2002 and 2007, some 18% of the 35,000 participants in the various New Deal 25+ programmes moved into work.
The NIAO found large variations in performance between providers and recommended improved monitoring of contract performance.
It said that almost a quarter of employers participating in New Deal used it as a source of low-cost labour.
Participants over 50 were particularly difficult to place into long-term work, said the report. Future benefits-to-work programmes should concentrate more on older participants, it suggested.
By March 2007, two-thirds of participants had been on New Deal schemes before, some five times or more.
The Department for Employment and Learning said it had replaced New Deal 25+ with an improved Steps to Work programme.
