MILLIONS of pounds set aside by the government each year to help people return to work is going unspent, Labour warned yesterday.

A Parliamentary question submitted by work and pensions select committee chairman Frank Field revealed that the “flexible support fund” underspent by £8.4 million last year — about 12 per cent of the £69.5m fund.

And the underspend for 2014-15 was even worse; at £64m it was nearly half that year’s overall budget.

The fund allows jobcentre staff to make payments to benefit claimants to help reduce barriers to work, helping claimants with the cost of things such as training and travel.

Labour MP Mr Field, who also chairs the all-party parliamentary group on hunger, cited evidence from foodbanks across the country where claimants had turned to them for assistance before receiving their first month’s wages.

He said that the transition from benefits into work brings with it a “barrage of extra costs” that must be met before employees receive their first month’s wages.

Mr Field said: “These additional costs can restrict new workers’ ability to afford food and other essential outgoings, even though they have gone with their best instincts by getting a job.”

Foodbanks in Chichester and Norwich both raised the transition to work as a particular problem, Mr Field said.

A National Audit Office report last year found the Department for Work & Pensions had underspent on the fund each year since it was introduced.

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