DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025

Public Accounts Committee Open Inquiry
Opened: 11 Sep 2025 Parliament page
The Public Accounts Committee will be following up recent scrutiny with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in autumn 2025, on various topics. The PAC’s July 2025 report on Jobcentres warned that government seemed complacent at the potential impact of a reduction in support for benefit claimants. Amid a … Read more
8 Recommendations
19 Conclusions
1 Report
1 Oral session
2 Letters
1 Event
Activity timeline 6 events
20 Apr
2026
Correspondence
1 Apr
2026
Report published
9 Jan
2026
Report published
24 Nov
2025
Correspondence
30 Oct
2025
Oral evidence
30 Oct
2025
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Grimond Room, Portcullis House
Oral evidence sessions 1 session
30 Oct 2025
View on parliament.uk
Barbara Bennett · Department of Work and Pensions Helen Wylie · Department of Work and Pensions Sir Peter Schofield KCB · Department for Work and Pensions
Title HC No. Published Items Response
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025 HC 1447 9 Jan 2026 27 Responded
Recommendations & Conclusions
4 results
Clear
3 Recommendation Rejected
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autum…
Publish regular jobcentre-level data on work coach numbers and into-work rates for transparency.
Greater transparency about jobcentre performance is needed to enable effective local scrutiny. In our July 2025 report on Jobcentres, we recommended that the Department should set out how it will increase transparency around jobcentres, for example by regularly publishing jobcentre-level … Read more
Government Response
The government rejects the recommendation to regularly publish jobcentre-level data on work coach numbers and into-work rates, stating that district and local authority level data is more appropriate for monitoring performance due to the risk of over-interpreting local fluctuations.
HM Treasury
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13 Recommendation Rejected
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autum…
DWP jobcentre performance data lacks transparency on work coach numbers and into-work rates.
In our July 2025 report on Jobcentres, we also scrutinised jobcentre performance. We noted that, although the Department published data on its Stat-Xplore platform relating to the number of claimants in each Universal Credit labour market category at jobcentre level, … Read more
Government Response
The government disagrees with the recommendation to publish jobcentre-level data, stating that the right level to monitor performance is at a district and local authority level. However, they will continue to develop the Get Britain Working Labour Market Insights publication and would be happy to take feedback from the Committee as this data evolves.
HM Treasury
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14 Conclusion Rejected
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autum…
New quarterly labour market insights lack individual jobcentre and work coach data.
In response to our recommendation, on the day of our evidence session in October 2025, the Department published the first in a new series of quarterly labour market insights. The Department explained that this publication provided information at jobcentre district … Read more
Government Response
The government disagrees, stating the right level to monitor performance is at a district and local authority level, citing potential over-interpretation of short-term fluctuations at the jobcentre level. It is developing its quarterly Labour Market Insights and welcomes feedback.
HM Treasury
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15 Recommendation Rejected
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autum…
Department avoids publishing granular jobcentre performance data due to practical challenges.
We asked the Department why it had not published performance data at jobcentre level as we had requested. The Department said that the challenge of presenting data at jobcentre level was that the geography of a jobcentre could be relatively … Read more
Government Response
The government disagrees, stating the right level to monitor performance is at a district and local authority level, citing potential over-interpretation of short-term fluctuations at the jobcentre level. It is developing its quarterly Labour Market Insights and welcomes feedback.
HM Treasury
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Government Response AI assessment · 26 of 8 classified
Accepted 4
Accepted in Part 2
Acknowledged 14
Deferred 1
Not Addressed 1
Rejected 4
Total 8 recs + 19 conclusions
Correspondence 2 letters
20 Apr 2026 To committee Letter from the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions to the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee relating to DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025, 30 March 2026
Parliament page
24 Nov 2025 To committee Letter from the Permanent Secretary at the Department of Work and Pensions relating to a follow-up to the Committee’s evidence session DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025 on 30 October 2025, 14 November 2025
Parliament page