Job Interview Guarantee Scheme (Hansard, 18 February 1994)

§ Mr. Michael Forsyth

Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. David Rendel, dated 18 February 1994: The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the Job Interview Guarantee Scheme. The current criteria for eligibility for the Job Interview Guarantee (JIG) scheme were introduced by the Employment Department in April 1993 as part of an overall review of eligibility for all the Group's programmes. The aim of the review was to streamline and bring together the criteria which had been developed over time for individual programmes. The following are entitled to help through the JIG:— —people aged 18+ who are unemployed for six months or more and in receipt of unemployment benefit, Income Support, Invalidity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Sickness Benefit or National Insurance credits. —people with disabilities. —indirect benefit recipients—the partner of a person who is unemployed and claiming unemployment benefit or Income Support where both partners are unemployed for 26 weeks or more. —ex-prisoners. —ex-regulars. —people involved in designated large scale redundancies. —people living in areas where a colliery has closed. —people with literacy and numeracy needs. —people needing basic training in English. —people returning to the labour market after being away for a continuous period of two years or more and who have not received unemployment benefit or National Insurance credits through the Employment Service. The number of clients unemployed and in receipt of benefits or National Insurance credits for six months or more in Great Britain and therefore eligible for JIG, as well as other programmes and initiatives, are as follows:

Year	Number
1992	1,269,000
1993	1,548,000
1994	1,545,000

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These long-term unemployed people make up our main target group, although they may also fall into one or more of the other categories. We do not have specific information on numbers of clients within each of these other categories. JIG continues to be an effective way of helping our priority clients out of unemployment and back to work. Through it we expect to place around 160,000 people into jobs in 1993/94, more than ever before. I hope this is helpful.