§ Mrs. Wiseasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether she will publish in the Official Report the parental means test scales for students claiming mandatory grant, including the method of computing income and disregards.
§ Mr. OakesI am sending my hon. Friend a copy of the Local Education Authorities Awards Regulations 1977. Paragraphs 2, 5 and 6 of Schedule 3 define the gross income and specify the deductions to be made in arriving at the residual income on which parental contributions are based. The following table illustrates the scale for 1977–78:
79W
RESIDUAL INCOME AND ASSESSED CONTRIBUTION £ £ Below 3,200 … … … Nil 3,200 … … … 20 3,300 … … … 40 3,400 … … … 60 3,500 … … … 80 3,600 … … … 100 3,700 … … … 120 3,800 … … … 140 3,900 … … … 160 4,000 … … … 180 4,100 … … … 200 4,200 … … … 220 4,300 … … … 240 4,400 … … … 260 4,500 … … … 280 4,600 … … … 300 4,700 … … … 320 4,800 … … … 340 4,900 … … … 350 5,000 … … … 360 6,000 … … … 460 7,000 … … … 550 8,000 … … … 641 9,000 … … … 732 10,000 … … … 823 11,000 … … … 914 12,000 … … … 1,005 13,000 … … … 1,096
§ Mrs. Wiseasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what plans she has to improve and standardise the financial provisions for young people in the 16 to 19 years age group who are taking higher or further education or training; and whether she will establish a working party to examine this matter.
§ Mr. OakesI am aware of various expressions of concern about the different levels of financial support available to young people on full-time courses of further education or under the youth opportunities programme, and of the arguments advanced for change. I am keeping the situation under review, but no major change in the existing arrangements would be possible within present resources. I see no advantage in the establishment of a working party.
§ Mrs. Wiseasked the Secretary of State Education and Science what steps she takes to monitor the use made by local authorities of their discretionary powers to make grants to students.
§ Mr. OakesMy Department collects each year information about the numbers and costs of discretionary awards to full-time and sandwich course students in further and higher education, and publishes it in "Statistics of Education", Volume 5. In addition, in 1977 the Department undertook a survey of local education authorities' policies and practice on discretionary awards.
§ Mrs. Wiseasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether the latest figures for the number and value of discretionary grants awarded by local authorities represent an improvement or a deterioraion in comparison with previous years, both as to the relationship of the total number of grants to the total numbers in the age groups most involved and as respects the value in relation to inflation.
§ Mr. OakesI am sending my hon. Friend a copy of the report on the survey of discretionary awards published on 1st February 1978, and invite her attention to the summary of conclusions in paragraph 3.