DWP Autumn Performance Report 2005: Progress against Public Service Agreement targets
Foreword by the Secretary of State
Since we introduced Public Service Agreements seven years ago, they have underpinned the delivery of a highly ambitious work programme through sets of targets which help us to achieve accountability and transparency in the workings of Government.
I am pleased to introduce this Autumn Performance Report from the Department for Work and Pensions, which sits alongside the Departmental Report published each Spring and sets out the progress that we have made over the last six months.
The report demonstrates that we have made enormous progress since 1997 in building a modern, active and inclusive welfare state, and that we are continuing to build on this success in our third term in Government:
- 2.3 million more people are in work than in 1997, and there is new evidence that our active labour market policies are working; this report shows encouraging recent trends in the employment rates of traditionally disadvantaged groups such as lone parents and ethnic minorities.
- Pensioner poverty has fallen by two thirds since we came into office, and families with children in the poorest fifth of the population are now, on average, £3,200 a year better off than they were in 1997.
- The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 completed the most profound extension of disability civil rights that this country has ever seen. And the launch of the Office for Disability Issues was a real turning point in bringing disabled people to the heart of Government, by putting them at the centre of policy and service delivery design rather than expecting disabled people to fit around existing services.
- We have made great strides in modernising welfare delivery; we are already on course to exceed our targets for quicker processing of Housing Benefit claims and for reductions in the level of overpayments of Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance due to fraud and error. 97% of our customers are being paid by direct debit, with the move to Direct Payment saving the taxpayer in excess of £1 billion over the next five years.
- Meanwhile we are working hard to improve awareness of retirement provision among those of working age; 7.2 million people were issued with a pension forecast between April and September 2005.
This interim report indicates real progress against stretching targets early in the reporting period, and is a tribute to the achievements of our dedicated staff working in the Department and its agencies, and to our voluntary and private sector partners.
But together, we also have a number of substantial challenges to face up to in coming months and years, and aspects of our work must improve. I am not complacent about the scale of these challenges. And because we recognise that there is still much to do in some areas, this report also lays out what we are intending to do to embed our successes across the board in the future.
The Department’s Five Year Strategy, published in February this year, made clear our aspiration to achieve an 80% employment rate and set the agenda for far-reaching reform of welfare delivery, building on the success of Jobcentre Plus and the New Deals. It will provide the framework which will help us to face up to new challenges in a changing society, in particular the demographic challenge; to deliver our PSA targets in the future; and, ultimately, to build a fair and inclusive society which offers opportunity and independence for all.
The Rt. Hon John Hutton MP
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions