"The DWP conned us, and our members" says a visibly upset Employment Related Services Association

"dangling the carrot of 'easy money' for 'helping' those out of work find work, and now we find we are expected to actually do something for the money, it isn't fair..." or if you prefer the properly balanced BBC version of the tale:

Work Programme 'not doing enough'

"The costs of helping jobseekers on ESA back into work are significant and cannot all be met by the Work Programme," says the Association's chief executive, Kirsty McHugh. "In order for there to be a significant step change in performance in helping these jobseekers into employment, we need greater use of skills and health budgets."

And to give the BBC credit it manages to sum up that plea from ERSA very nicely indeed :-

The call for spending from other parts of the public sector to be channelled in to support the Work Programme is an embarrassment for this flagship government scheme.

Well yes, another example of the "do it so much better" private sector asking that it be allowed to pass the burden of doing what it is contracted to do over to the failing "public sector" whilst this not impacting on its "payment by (sic) results" profits.

But interestingly ERSA are not castigating Atos, holder of the DWP issued contract for reassessing Incapacity Benefit holders for ESA, and new ESA claims, which is resulting in all these "people declared not ill and suitable for undertaking work" who are now being directed at the Work Programme providers to actually complete the chain and find them that work.

The Department for Work and Pensions says the payment-by-results contracts agreed with Work Programme providers already give them "a clear financial incentive to support the hardest to help into work".

Oh dear, the initial DWP response to the "can we renegotiate the entire contract two years in" plea from ERSA seems to be a firm, if carefully worded "no way". Wonder how long that line will be maintained.