The government’s Work Programme has found long-term jobs for 31,000 unemployed people in its first year, according to figures published today by the Employment Related Services Association.

Most of these 31,000 got jobs for at least six months, with the rest in the "hard to help" group getting work for at least three months. A total of 878,000 people were referred to the programme in its first year.

The government had set a target of at least 5% of people getting long-term jobs, however, the performance to date equates to a success rate of only 3.5%. 

The figures also show that at least 56% of the scheme’s earliest participants have come off benefits, with 19% spending at least six consecutive months off benefits, while more than 200,000 found some work by September. 

The Work Programme was launched in June 2011 based on the principle that providers would be paid for long-term results.

Mark Hoban, minister for employment, says: “Today's statistics show varying performance among providers. Some are performing well in helping people back to work, but others are not doing as well... Letters have been issued to all providers expressing concern where their performance falls short of requirements and those providers with the lowest performance to date have been issued with formal contract letters.

“It's still early days but already thousands of lives are being transformed.”