§ Mrs. ClwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many single parents are on each Government training scheme; how many single parents on those schemes take up the child care allowance available; what is the total annual cost of the child care allowances scheme; and what is the estimated cost of providing child care allowance on training schemes for all married women who could potentially enter those schemes.
§ Mr. Nicholls[holding answer 15 February 1989]: Information on lone parents on Government training schemes is available only for employment training, which is the only such scheme under which child care allowances are available.
Over 2,000 lone parents have already joined employment training. Information on how many of them are claiming for child care payments will not be available until the end of April but, so far, advances of just over £1 375W million have been made to training managers in respect of their commitments to child care allowances. The cost of making child care allowances to all married women who could potentially enter Government training schemes is difficult to estimate but would undoubtedly be substantial.