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Work programme provider G4S is to have its ban on applying for new government contracts ended - after just one year.
The company was pulled up after it was found to have overcharged the state by £109 million for the electronic tagging and monitoring of prisoners.
But the Cabinet Office has backtracked on this ban, saying G4S had taken "positive steps" to change its practices and engaged "constructively" with the government.
Young unemployed people are under severe stress leading to many feeling suicidal, a survey has found.
Charity The Prince's Trust commissioned YouGOV to find out how those aged under-25 feel about being out of work, with more than 900,000 still not in employment, education or training.
40% of youngsters have experienced the symptoms of mental illness, while even more shockingly one in three of the long-term unemployed have thought about suicide as a way out of their plight.
The coalition's flagship Work Programme is not working for the disabled, a government advisor has said.
UnemployedNet has responded to the government's consultation on the next generation of work programmes.
Gathering workless people's opinions through Facebook, the Huffington Post and direct emails, we pushed the case for a fairer deal for the unemployed.
The response recommended:
More than 168,000 jobseekers have found lasting work through the Work Programme, but some providers have been penalised for their poor performance.
Figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) showed that, up to the end of June 2013, 149,000 had sustained a job for at least six months, an increase of 37,000 since March.
However, less than a quarter of those who joined the scheme at the beginning in 2012 had found long-term work despite receiving two years of support.
Nine employees of under-fire employment services company A4e have been charged with fraud after allegedly faking evidence of jobs to get payments from the public purse.
The "numerous" offences were alleged to have taken place over four years between 2009 and 2013.
The company holds multiple government contracts including under the government's flagship Work Programme, but the court case relates to the "Inspire to Aspire" employment and training scheme.
Controversial company A4e has been found guilty of racial discrimination by an employment tribunal.
A4e dismissed Rohim Ullah from its Bradford office in 2011 for failing to follow proper procedures, while two white managers accused of the same thing were kept on.
One of those managers also said of an Iraqi client that he should "f*** off back to his own country", but he was not subject to the same standard of investigation.
The Work Programme and jobcentre are there to help people into work.
So how would you feel if a jobcentre sanction prevented you from taking up a job the Work Programme had already helped you get?
This was nearly the experience of Philip Emans, a jobseeker from London.
His Work Programme provider helped him get a job as a cleaner at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital after being out of work for more than two years, which included a period of homelessness.
The Work Programme is failing in its attempts to support homeless people into work.
That is the stark warning from Peter Watson, a former drug addict and homeless man interviewed in today's Guardian.
Having cleaned up after two decades, he was put on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), recognising that he had barriers to overcome before he would be ready for work.
There has been an improvement in the number of people getting long-term jobs through the Work Programme, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The Work Programme is the government's flagship scheme supporting unemployed people into jobs, but it was criticised for poor performance last year after only 3.5% of its clients found long-term work.
