§ Ms ShortTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many applications for career development loans by unemployed people have been turned down by the banks; how many unemployed people awarded career development loans subsequently go into full-time employment after completing training; how many unemployed people have been served with career development loan default notices; and if he will make a statement.
§ Miss WiddecombeInformation on the number of rejected career development loan—CDL—applications from unemployed people is not available. The current approval rate for all CDL applicants is approximately 70 per cent.
Follow-up surveys on a 20 per cent. sample of CDL trainees are carried out three months after they have completed their training course. Information from responders to this survey indicates that over 60 per cent. of CDL trainees, who are registered unemployed at the time of taking out a CDL, have a positive outcome to their training at the three-month stage; 36 per cent. go into full-time employment, 5 per cent. into part-time employment and 10 per cent. into self employment. A further 5 per cent. are waiting to take up an unaccepted job offer and 5 per cent. go on to take further training.
Information on the number of unemployed CDL trainees who have defaulted on their loan repayments is not available. However, recent analysis undertaken by the banks of reasons for CDLs defaulting would suggest that of the 1,687 loans defaulted in the current financial year to February, approximately a third were due to unemployment at the end of the course.