A JOBS scheme has helped more than 20,000 unemployed people in the North-East into lasting work, the Government claims.

Ministers say the Work Programme has contributed to the largest drop in long-term unemployment in Britain since 1998.

In the North-East, officials say 20,340 people have reached the six-month point in their new job - or three months for the hardest to help groups - with the vast majority continuing to work past that point.

The Government says the number of jobseekers in the region claiming benefits for more than 12 months had fallen by 9,700 over the past year, with the number of people claiming for more than two years also falling by 3,200 over the same period.

The Work Programme was launched in 2011 with the aim of helping 2.1 million people by March 2016.

It is run by private contractors which provide support and training to people out of work, and are paid for the number of people they help to find and stay in work.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan-Smith said: “Previously whole sections of society were abandoned - over a million people left to languish on benefits for a decade or more with zero job prospects.

“Too many of the long-term jobless were simply ignored - a tragic waste of potential. That's why we introduced the Work Programme.

"It revolutionises the way we provide support to the those who are the hardest to help, supporting a move from dependency to independence and getting people into work so that they have financial security for the future."

However, Labour said the Government should admit the programme was "failing" rather than "pat themselves on the back".

A Labour North spokesman said: "This Tory-led government remains deeply complacent about jobs in the North-East.

"After two years on it people are more likely to be returned to the Jobcentre than find a job."

He added that a future Labour government would introduce a compulsory jobs guarantee, funded by a tax on bank bonuses, to provide a paid job for the young unemployed and those out of work for over two years.