Guidance

[Withdrawn] LR67 provider memo: updates to provider guidance

Updated 17 January 2019

This guidance was withdrawn on 11 June 2020

The Work Choice programme has ended. Find other DWP provider guidance.

This memo is for Work Choice providers, it was issued on 23 July 2018.

1. Employing Work Choice participants

Provider Payment Validation Team (PPVT) have lately seen a number of claims for payment or validation in respect of Short Job Outcomes where Work Choice participants (or former participants) have been employed by Work Choice providers.

It has been noted that some of these periods of employment have been exactly 13 weeks in duration.

You are reminded of Work Choice provider guidance relating to employing your Work Choice participants.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) acknowledges that you may employ individuals who originally start out as a Work Choice participant. This is acceptable. However, the strategic intent of the Work Choice programme is to place participants into sustained employment that extends beyond the duration specified for performance and payment processes.

In that respect, DWP would not find it acceptable for you to continuously turnover your employee base with Work Choice participants merely as a means of enabling Job Outcomes to be reported and subsequent payments to be claimed.

This also applies to participants placed into a supported Business (please see Sections 13 and 14 of the provider guidance for further information on supported Businesses). The main aim of the placement within a supported business must be to eventually place that individual into sustained employment rather than exit from the Work Choice programme once that period of supported employment ends.

Evidence of preparing the participant to sustain open employment at the end of any short period of work or paid placement within your own organisation must be fully documented and retained for scrutiny by DWP.

Action

You must consider the above guidance before submitting any such claim as PPVT will subject them to careful scrutiny.

2. Updates to provider guidance section 17

Section 17 has been updated as shown in the following table:

Paragraph	Revised text
17.04	Added the following wording: The customer consent form should be completed at programme start and is applicable to any or all employers in the relevant claim period. There should not be a mixture of consent for different employers.
17.06	Amended to: Once a case has been selected for sample if the consent status changes (for example, it is withdrawn) or you identify that it has been set incorrectly you must inform PPVT, confirmation of this change must be received in writing. Confirmation should be sent to ppvt.policyandguidancequeries@dwp.gsi.gov.uk.
17.12	Amended to: Where you require a claim for any payment type to be removed from PRaP at the post payment stage, before a sample has been drawn, you need to notify the PRaP Operational Support Team (POST) at prap.support@dwp.gsi.gov.uk using the current PRaP 14 process. POST will then arrange for the claim to be backed out of PRaP and the recovery of funding where the fee has been paid.
17.13	Added the following para: All Provider requests to back out claims should be minimal as Providers are expected to check that all claims are valid at the point of submission. The Department will monitor volumes of backed out cases as these can be evidence of poor systems of internal control. All cases that are likely to be invalid due to potential fraud should be notified to DWP immediately.
17.23	Amended wording to: Each month DWP will randomly select for validation a sample of 17 Short Job Outcomes for each individual Work Choice contract that have been paid in the previous month. If the total Short Job Outcomes paid is fewer than 17 in any month then all will be selected. Please note, DWP reserve the right to sample additional claims at any point.
17.33	Amended to: For self-employed participants DWP will contact either the individual or, in cases where the participant work for an employer but is paid on a self-employed basis, DWP may also contact the employer for validation purposes.
17.45	Amended to: The sample for Sustained Job Outcomes will be subject to checks to establish if participants have been in employment for at least 16 hours per week that lasts for at least 26 weeks out of 30 starting from the date that Work Choice support was withdrawn i.e. when the participant leaves the programme.
17.46	Amended to: For Sustained Job Outcomes PPVT will check that the claim period started after the participant left provision and, for unsupported employment i.e. where the Sustainment period overlaps or runs concurrently with the 13 week Short Job Outcome, within the 6 week Tracking Period. Claims which do not meet this criteria will fail validation.
17.49	Amended to: For self-employed participants DWP will contact either the individual or, in cases where the participant work for an employer but is paid on a self-employed basis, DWP may also contact the employer for validation purposes.
17.71	‘Out of Scope’ amended to: Where no new or relevant information is identified, these cases will be treated as ‘Out of Scope’ and no additional review activity will be undertaken; in these instances the original validation decision will be applied , such as Fail or UTV.
17.72	Amended to: Once the cases have been reviewed, the DWP Review Team will present their recommendations for cases classified as Fail or Unable to Validate, to a Review Board. This Board includes DWP representatives from Controls, Policy, Commercial and Performance Management Teams. The purpose of the Board is twofold; to be satisfied that any reviewed decisions will stand up to scrutiny by DWP Internal Audit and the NAO, and to approve the original validation decision if it remains unchanged. The Board may also direct the Review Team to progress additional lines of enquiry before finalising their decisions.
17.78	Amended to: The department also wants to be more transparent with its planning for Post Payment Validation and will therefore be publishing the timetable, on a monthly basis from August 2019 in BRAVO for all Contracted Employment Programmes.

3. Work Choice LRM 66 reminder

Work Choice live running memo (LRM) 66 (issued via BRAVO) requested providers send either a status report or, if possible, an affirmative note that the action required by LRM 66 has been completed, to the Work Choice Policy Team at: disabilityemploymentprovisionpolicy.enquiries@dwp.gsi.gov.uk on or by 13 July 2018..

We understand that some providers have notified or updated their performance managers, but (if you have not already done so) a formal response to the above email address, as requested in the LRM, would be appreciated.

4. Further information contact details

If you have any queries about this memo consult your performance manager in the first instance.