A SHORTAGE of work coaches at jobcentres is undermining Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s drive to get more benefit claimants into work, a charity has warned.

In the Spring Statement, Ms Reeves said reforms to the “broken” benefits system will save around £4.8 billion by 2030, with £1bn to be invested in personalised employment support.

Benefit claimants can currently be supported by a professional coach at jobcentres, who offer advice and refer for job opportunities.

But a National Audit Office report published today found that, on average, about 2,100 fewer work coaches were employed than needed between April and September last year.

It attributed the shortfall to factors including funding and challenges with recruiting and retaining staff.

Between September 2023 and November 2024, 57 per cent of Jobcentres cut their support for universal credit (UC) claimants due to high case numbers, the report found.

It also highlighted shortages by region, revealing that southern England had 382 fewer coaches than needed.

Birmingham and Solihull had the lowest job entry rate, with 5.5 per cent of UC claimants moving into work.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said the shortfall “undermines the government’s promise to support disabled people into work, which it used to justify the biggest cuts to disability benefits in recent memory.”

Senior policy adviser Iain Porter said: “Moving away from box-ticking and compliance towards personalised, tailored support for people with long-term ill health or disability requires dedicated work coaches to build relationships of mutual trust and respect.

“But more than half of jobcentres reduced their support for people looking for work at the end of last year because of rising caseloads.

“The government must urgently explain how it plans to support disabled people into work while these shortages remain.”

Public accounts committee chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said government reforms will be “frustrated without clear evidence” of what succeeds in supporting claimants into work, and called for better monitoring of Jobcentre performance.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said the government plans to redeploy 1,000 coaches to help disabled claimants, modernise jobcentres with digital tools and introduce the Get Britain Working paper with the “biggest employment reforms in a generation.”