§ Mr. Pikeasked the Paymaster General if he will publish information showing how many people in the (a) Burnley, (b) Pendle and (c) Hyndburn travel-to-work areas have had their benefit (i) reduced and (ii) withdrawn, in connection with the restart scheme.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeNo one can lose his or her benefit entitlements solely as a result of the restart programme. The aim of the programme is to interview long-term unemployed people in order to make a suitable offer to them of work, training or a course that will get them on the path back to work.
Under long-standing legal rules people can lose their entitlement to benefit if they fail to attend an interview, are not available for work, or refuse an offer of suitable employment. We have no information available in the precise form requested as it is not possible to break down the figures into the three areas separately. But as at 9 390W October 1986 the number of people invited to a restart interview who later had benefit disallowed by independent adjudication officers in the three areas, was 23. A further 25 claimants in the areas had benefit suspended and then reinstated after going to a restart interview which they had previously failed to attend.
§ Mr. Marlowasked the Paymaster General, pursuant to the answer of 19 November, Official Report, column 211, about the number of people ceasing to claim unemployment benefit following invitation to a restart interview, if he will explain the differences between the total given under the second column of that answer and the total given under the third column of the answer on 5 November, Official Report, column 459.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe 86,211 people in the third column of the table in theOfficial Report at column 459 are those who have been sent a letter of invitation to a restart interview but who have ceased to claim benefit at some time after the sending of the letter. They include the 30,218 people referred to in the second column of the table in the Official Report at column 211 who have ceased to claim benefit after being interviewed.
The difference between these two figures—55,993—iscomprised of people who have been sent a letter but ceased to claim benefit before a restart interview.