MPs have urged the Department for Work and Pensions to review its work coach model and find ways to empower job centre staff.
A new report by the Work and Pensions Committee, Get Britain Working: Reforming Jobcentres, warns that work coaches “are an incredible resource but they are currently being ineffectively deployed”.
It says work coaches often do not have enough time with claimants to have an impact, with many appointments no more than 10 minutes long – “not nearly enough to address the needs of many claimants who are further from employment”.
“What time they do have is frequently poorly directed, with too little time spent building relationships and coaching people into work, and too much spent checking compliance with benefit conditions,” the report adds.
The committee has asked DWP to undertake – and publish – a detailed review of its work coach model over the next year, and said this should evaluate the difference work coach support makes to employment outcomes for different groups, identifying those who would most benefit from more support and those who do not require work coaching because, for example, they are likely to only temporarily be out of the workforce.
As part of this review, the MPs said DWP should look at “evidence-based options for empowering work coaches”, including “how to give them greater autonomy over how best to support individual claimants while maintaining a consistent service”.
They said the DWP should also look at best practice among other providers of employment support, including voluntary and community sector organisations, “which we have heard can provide a more tailored service”.
The MPs said they were encouraged to hear from DWP during its evidence-gathering that the department wants work coaches to have more time with claimants, and that it wants to deliver more personalised support.
“Coaching that is tailored to the aspirations of the service user and that seeks to identify the unique barriers people face will be far more effective than the current support provided,” they said.
However, they warned that work coaches “are already stretched, with too few employed to deliver this service currently”.
The report said DWP “will need to develop a clear plan for how it prioritises work coach time to deliver this higher-quality service and its other planned reforms” and asked the department to share these plans once they are finalised.
The MPs noted that DWP has already made some decisions about how best to use work coach time, including reducing work coach time with some claimants, but said they were “concerned that these changes are occurring in an ad hoc manner, with limited evidence and no clear strategy”.
The warnings come after a report by the Public Accounts Committee, published earlier this summer, raised concerns that DWP leadership "seems complacent" about the impact of a shortage of work coaches on claimants, and noted that, in the first six months of 2024-25, the department had 2,100 fewer work coaches than it estimated it needed.
The Work and Pensions Committee also raised concerns about DWP’s plans to address work coach capacity issues through digital tools.
It said DWP plans to deliver its flagship “Jobcentre in your pocket” tool in 2027–28, “but has yet to define what it is, how it will work and who it is for”.
The committee added that it had particular concerns that DWP has not fully addressed the risks posed by AI technology.
The report notes that the department has said it is developing an AI-powered tool, DWP ASK, that helps work coaches find the right policy and guidance, and that 60% of job centres were, as of May, trialling new AI approaches, including using Microsoft Copilot to help claimants with CVs and cover letters.
But it also notes that it received lots of evidence from organisations emphasising the risks associated with AI.
"New Challenge wrote that AI tools should never replace the human interaction; human advisers were still needed to interpret and personalise any AI-generated advice, and to provide coaching support," the report says.
"Other submitters highlighted the risks that AI posed to vulnerable groups. Mind reported that evidence has shown that AI amplifies biases and discriminatory views about disabled people.Women’s Aid highlighted that the natural language processing behind AI tools might only recognise textbook English, but English use varies across cultural context, putting certain groups at risk."
The committee has asked DWP to work with the employment support sector to develop a framework for the ethical use of AI.
Work and Pensions Committee chair Debbie Abrahams said: “Providing the right support to get people back into the workplace assists not only individual claimants, but businesses and wider society too.
“While the DWP has made some welcome progress in making a more supportive system for jobseekers, more can be done to really transform the system and encourage people back into work.
“A more personalised, flexible approach will improve employment outcomes, give people more control over their lives and help to restore their dignity.”
A government spokesperson said: “As the committee recognises, we are transforming job centres so our talented work coaches can focus on tailored job support, not monitoring benefits.
“We are already trialling radical new ideas, working with local leaders to tailor services to meet community challenges and are deploying work coaches to deliver intensive support to sick and disabled people.
“This comes alongside our £240m investment to Get Britain Working and grow the economy by guaranteeing every young person the chance to earn or learn, tackling inactivity and joining up work and health support as we deliver on our Plan for Change.”