Guidance

Restart Scheme statistics background and methodology

Updated 7 December 2023

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

The latest release of these statistics can be found in the Restart Scheme statistics collection.

Restart Scheme

Coronavirus (COVID-19), and the public health measures introduced in response to it had unprecedented economic impacts in the UK and globally. The impact on out of work benefit claims was immediate, with over 1 million declarations to Universal Credit (UC) alone in the first few months of the pandemic.

At the Spending Review on 25 November 2020, HM Treasury confirmed a ‘new 3-year long £2.9 billion Restart programme’ as part of the ‘Plan for Jobs’ to provide intensive and tailored support to over 1 million unemployed people to help them into sustained work.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) later reassessed the demand for the scheme; it is now likely to support around 0.7 million individuals over its life, at a projected cost of around £1.7 billion.

Details of this reassessment can be found in:

• the July 2022 Accounting Officer Advice
• the December 2022 National Audit Office report on the Restart Scheme

The initial focus for referrals at the scheme’s launch in June 2021 was those who had been on UC in the Intensive Work Search Regime (IWSR) continuously for between 12 and 18 months, and who had moved into this regime after March 2020.

From January 2022, those in receipt of UC IWSR for at least 9 months were considered eligible; this was expanded later in 2022 to include all claimants under UC IWSR with UC claims of at least 9 months, as well as those claimants in receipt of Income Based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA IB).

People are referred to the scheme by Work Coaches in Jobcentre Plus offices to external organisations (Providers) that work alongside Jobcentre Plus to give personalised support to participants for up to 12 months to help them to find, and remain in, employment.

Providers are paid a service fee to deliver this support. In addition, they receive a payment for each participant that achieves a job outcome. This is when, since starting on the scheme, a participant reaches either:

• a specified cumulative level of earnings called the earnings threshold

• 6 months of gainful self-employment

Providers are eligible for an outcome payment for each participant that achieves a job outcome within 18 months of starting on the scheme

Restart has run alongside 2 other ‘Plan for Jobs’ schemes that were announced in July 2020:

• Kickstart aimed at young people with referrals between October 2020 and March 2022

• Job Entry Targeted Support aimed at shorter duration unemployed with referrals between October 2020 and September 2022

It also ran alongside employment support schemes that had been operating before the pandemic including the Work and Health Programme and the Intensive Personalised Employment Support scheme.

Since Restart’s launch it has operated in a changing labour market which can be broadly characterised by a decreasing unemployment rate that has more recently flattened, rising employment rate (but that is below pre-pandemic levels) and high levels of vacancies. This wider context should be considered throughout this publication.

Purpose of the statistics

The purpose of the Restart Scheme statistics is to inform and present data on the number of people who have:

• been referred to the Restart Scheme

• started on the Restart Scheme

• achieved their first earnings from employment while on the Restart Scheme

• achieved a job outcome while on the Restart Scheme

Additionally, the statistics present a comparison of the number of those achieving a job outcome to planning and commercial expectations.

Within DWP

The information in the Restart Scheme publication and supplementary tables is used to:

• evaluate, develop and support policy, strategy and operational decisions, initiatives and options and business plans

• answer Parliamentary Questions and Freedom of Information requests

• inform Press Office statements

Within DWP the statistics will be used by:

• policy, strategy, operational support and associated analytical teams

• DWP Private Office and Press Office

• Parliamentary Question, Freedom of Information and briefing teams

External users

Outside DWP, the internet-based publication mechanism means that understanding the extent of the varied use of the statistics and data is challenging. Potential external user groups include:

• local authorities

• non-departmental public bodies

• charities

• business representatives and trade bodies

Source

The main source of data is taken from the Provider Referral and Payment System (PRaP) which DWP and the Restart Scheme providers use to record key data attributes and events in the journey of Restart Scheme participants (these are: referral, start, outcome, dates, contract package area).

This is then combined with both the Customer Information System and Universal Credit caseload data to add information about the participant’s age and gender.

These are known as administrative (admin) data sources.

Rounding

From the June 2023 publication, rounding has been applied to the Restart Scheme statistics. The headline figures and those accompanying the graphs have been rounded as shown in the following table.

From	To	Round to nearest
0	1,000	10
1,001	10,000	100
10,001	100,000	1,000
100,001	1,000,000	10,000
1,000,001	10,000,000	100,000

Definitions and terminology

The following definitions are used in these statistics.

Participants

The Restart Scheme launched in June 2021, with the first cohort of starts from July 2021, in England and Wales and aims to provide tailored and intensive support to participants to achieve sustained work. It is currently aimed at those who have claimed UC continuously for at least 9 months and are currently under the IWSR. Participants may also come from those in receipt of JSA IB for at least 9 months.

Providers

The Restart scheme is delivered across England and Wales by 8 providers across 12 areas, known as Contract Package Areas (CPAs). These CPAs represent 12 geographic areas of England and Wales, with Wales as a single area (CPA 6), see map below.

Map showing CPAs in England and Wales

CPA Number	Area	Provider
CPA 1a	West Central	Serco Limited
CPA 1b	East Central	Jobs22 Limited
CPA 2a	North East and Humberside	Reed in Partnership Limited
CPA 2b	S&W Yorkshire, Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire	Maximus UK Services Limited
CPA 3a	North West	G4S Facilities Management (UK) Limited
CPA 3b	Greater Manchester	Ingeus UK Limited
CPA 4a	South West	Seetec Pluss Limited
CPA 4b	South Central	Fedcap Employment Limited
CPA 5a	Central and West London	Ingeus UK Limited
CPA 5b	South and West London	Maximus UK Services Limited
CPA 5c	Home Counties	Reed in Partnership Limited
CPA 6	Wales	Serco Limited

Referrals

Work Coaches in Jobcentre Plus offices send details of potential participants to their provider. Before doing so, the Work Coach will consider each individual’s needs and circumstances to understand their suitability and eligibility for the scheme. This part of the participant journey is called a referral. Individuals may be referred to a provider more than once prior to starting on the scheme.

Individuals referred

Since an individual can be referred more than once, individuals referred is the number of unique individual people referred. For this value, only the individual’s first referral is counted.

Starts

A start on the scheme is recorded when an individual referred to Restart attends an initial meeting with the provider. There is a period of 40 working days from the point of referral in which the participant’s start on the scheme can be recorded by the provider. In places in this document, we will use the term ‘participant’ interchangeably with ‘start’ to aid readability.

Cohort

A group of participants who start on the Restart Scheme in the same calendar month.

First earnings from employment

Information on participants’ earnings are reported to the DWP by HMRC Real Time Earnings (RTE) data. The point at which a participant first achieves earnings from their first employment whilst on the scheme is known as the first earnings. A participant who achieves first earnings may not necessarily then go on to achieve a job outcome. Statistics on first earnings from employment do not include earnings from self-employment.

Job outcomes

Job outcomes represent sustained employment. A provider is classed as achieving a job outcome when a participant, since starting on the scheme, reaches either:

• cumulative earnings exceeding the earnings threshold. This is the equivalent of working 16 hours per week for 26 weeks at the National Living Wage

• a minimum of 6 months of gainful self-employment

Employed job outcomes are registered by the DWP Provider Referral and Payment (PRaP) system based on earnings information reported to the department by HMRC within 21 months of the participant’s start on the scheme. The earnings threshold must be met within 18 months of starting on the scheme.

Self-Employed job outcomes are reported to the DWP by the provider. A provider is entitled to claim a self-employed job outcome when the participant has achieved a cumulative period of not less than 6 months of self-employment within a 547-day qualifying period, having started that 6-month period of self-employment within their 365 days on the scheme.

Job outcome expectation

There are 2 contractual job outcome expectation measures for Restart, set at the start of the contract:

• the Tender Performance Level (TPL)
• the Minimum Performance Level (MPL)

These expectations were reviewed in 2022 when the Restart contracts were renegotiated, and the scheme was opened to a wider group of potential participants.

For the scheme as a whole:

• the MPL now represents an expectation that 27% of participants on the scheme will achieve a job outcome within the qualifying period over the life of the scheme and is the minimum expectation set by the department

• the TPL now represents an expectation that 36% of participants on the scheme will achieve a job outcome within the qualifying time period over the life of the scheme. This expectation is derived from the proportion of participants that providers expected to achieve a job outcome during the commercial negotiation process

Each cohort of participants has a specific final job outcome expectation, with job outcome expectations rising for cohorts over time reflecting the economic conditions and maturity of the scheme anticipated during the planning of the scheme. Throughout this publication, the number of actual job outcomes achieved by participants will be compared to the TPL and MPL expectations.

A cohort of starts reaches maturity after a 21-month period. This consists of 12 months where participants are actively on the scheme, a 6-month tracking period where earnings made from employment count towards a job outcome, and a further 3-month data settlement period to allow for late-reported earnings. Job outcomes may be changed retrospectively due to data settling and so the total numbers of outcomes achieved for a given cohort may change in any future publication.

The job outcome expectations may be reported within this publication for the scheme as a whole, for participants of a particular CPA, or for participants belonging to a particular start cohort.

Note: Inferences about the scheme’s delivery and effectiveness from changes in job outcome rates against expectation should be done very cautiously. Changes to the characteristics of participants within a cohort, such as from expansions to eligibility bringing in groups of participants with different circumstances and backgrounds, as well as changes in the wider economy can influence the movement of participants into work. Therefore, it is possible for job outcome rates to rise/fall in an improving/declining labour market without this representing an associated change in the impact and effectiveness of the scheme.

Statistics under development

These statistics have been developed using guidelines set out by the UK Statistics Authority, and as Official Statistics undergoing evaluation they have accordingly been badged as ‘statistics under development’. Please see the latest release for more information.

Quality statement

A standard set of quality assurance procedures are conducted for each statistical release. They consist of checking for duplicate, missing or contradictory information, as well as trends and variations in characteristics, time series and area breakdowns.

They follow a set path as shown in the table.

Stage	Path
1	Data comes in from data sources.
2	Verified against internal Management Information and other internal sources to quality assure trends and variations.
3	Any errors in the process noted and corrected.
4	Quality assured at the end of the processing against previous runs to ensure no discrepancies in the data.
5	Tables produced on templates to ensure consistency across time.
6	Tables compared to previous releases for changes in trends.
7	Publication updated with new figures and graphs whilst ensuring that any changes are within expected limits.
8	Publication.

Feedback

DWP would like to hear your views on our statistical publication, and suggestions for future developments on the series.

Send your views on the Restart Scheme statistics by:

• visiting the Welfare, Wellbeing and Housing community on the Royal Statistical Society StatsUserNet

Press enquiries should be directed to the DWP Press Office: 0115 965 8828.

Other enquiries about these statistics should be sent by email to cep.statistics@dwp.gov.uk.

ISBN: 978-1-78659-531-7