Quantitative + Qualitative research = a thorough exploration of whether ‘creaming’ and ‘parking’ are widespread and systematically embedded in the government's flagship employment scheme.

TSRC Working Paper 115 argues that creaming and parking are present, driven by a combination of intense cost-pressures and extremely ambitious performance targets, alongside overly diverse claimant groups and inadequately calibrated differentiated payment levels. James Rees, Adam Whitworth and Eleanor Carter ask: has the Work Programme struck the right balance between value for money, incentives, and claimant protections?