Work Programme figures: Employment minister Mark Hoban
Employment minister Mark Hoban said one in four people in the Work Programme had been helped into a job, which showed that "performance is in the pipeline".
Firms and charities are paid to help find jobs for the long-term unemployed, and official figures released on Tuesday showed only 3.53% of people found a job for six months or more - missing the 5.5% target.
Mr Hoban said there would be "no apology for ambitious targets", adding "we are not going to change the targets".
He declined to name any of the poor-performing providers working with the government on the welfare-to-work scheme, but said they were on notice and should "do what we expect them to".
MORE FROM THE DAILY POLITICS and SUNDAY POLITICS
27 Nov 2012
- From the section UK Politics