Charities are delivering support to homeless people on the Work Programme which prime contractors are being paid for, a new report from Crisis, St Mungo’s and Homeless Link today warns.

The report, the Programme’s Not Working, looks at the experiences of homeless people on the Work Programme, and finds many people who are homeless feel they are receiving ‘dire support’, or feel abandoned by their Work Programme provider.

As a consequence, many charities outside the Work Programme, such as Crisis and St Mungo’s, continue to provide employment support to homeless people who are on the Work Programme.

The report says this leads to the ‘perverse consequence’ of charities supporting homeless people into work, while prime contractors are paid for a job outcome they did not contribute towards.

Ironically, St Mungo’s was part of the Work Programme until early 2012, but left after not receiving a single referral over nine months from its three prime contractors. Another homelessness charity, Single Homeless Project also withdrew from the Work Programme, citing a lack of referrals.

The report says charities should not be delivering support that the Work Programme provider is being paid for and calls for these charities to be funded for the employment support they are already delivering.