In the context of WTW interventions, ‘creaming’ refers to provider behaviour that prioritises attention for unemployed claimants with fewer barriers to work and who are therefore felt to be easier, cheaper and also more likely to move into paid work and release outcome payments. In contrast, ‘parking’ refers to provider behaviour that deliberately neglects giving time, energy or resources to unemployed claimants with more substantial barriers to work, given that such claimants are considered to be relatively unlikely to move into paid work and/or to require considerable, and usually expensive, employment support to make a move into paid work likely (and hence an outcome payment).

the issue of the “parking” of hard-to-place WTW clients. Within the context of our analysis, parking is defined as not serving hard-to-place clients who have been assigned to WTW programs. In other words, parking might be characterized as a form of cream-skimming during the program, in which providers try to maximize placement rates and keep costs down by focusing resources on the most able
clients while doing little to serve those with the poorest job prospects.