Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what criteria her Department plans to use to determine which jobseekers should be referred to the Work and Health Programme.

The main groups that Work and Health Programme (WHP) will provide targeted support for are:

• Disabled people as defined in the Equality Act 2010, who can volunteer to join the Programme at any time
• Other groups who need extra tailored support to find employment, including ex-offenders, yound people leaving the care system and those with alcohol and/or drug dependency
• Long term unemployed people (more than two years)

An individual can be referred, by a Work Coach, when the following criteria are met:

• that the claimant is able to achieve the goal of finding employment within one year
• the indiviudal can be helped by the offer
• that Jobcentre Plus has already helped the individual with their core job search activity
• the claimaint needs more support than can be provided within the standard Jobcentre Plus offer (or through other available services and provision).

Long term unemployment claimaints will be considered for mandatory referral to the programme when they reach 24 months plus of employment.