§ Mr. RooneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many unemployed people in each region and in Great Britain as a whole have applied for a jobfinder's grant and(a) received a grant and (b) not received a grant since April; what is the means-tested savings limit in each region; what procedures are in place for appeals for people whose grant applications are turned down; if she will provide a breakdown of recipients of the jobfinder's grant by their gross weekly wage level; and if she will make a statement. [41918]
§ Mr. ForthResponsibility 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. Terry Rooney, dated 7 November 1995:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the Jobfinder's Grant.The attached table (Annex 1) shows the number of Jobfinder's Grants applied for and awarded nationally and by region since the programme was introduced on 18 April (22 May in Yorkshire and Humberside region, where a more flexible variant to the programme is being piloted) up to 6 October, which is the latest date for which figures are available.The table also shows the gross weekly wage level of grant recipients. To be eligible for the grant, applicants must take jobs paying £150 gross per week or less (£250 per week gross or less in Yorkshire and Humberside region).The savings limit for the grant is £2,800 in all regions except Yorkshire and Humberside and the South West, where it is £2,600. (In these two regions, pilot variants to the programme allow grants of up to £400, which is double the £200 flat rate grant in the rest of the country.)The grant has been made available to help jobseekers who have been unemployed for a very long time to overcome the barrier, perceived or otherwise, of the transitional phase from losing benefits to receiving their first wage. It is not a benefit and there is no statutory right to the grant. Therefore, there is no formal appeals procedure for applications which are turned down.I hope this is helpful.843W
Annex 1: Jobfinder's grant Grants applied for (up to 6 October) Grants awarded (up to 6 October) National total 9,128 5,478 London and South East 1,289 745 South West 751 426 Wales 563 369 West Midlands 1,328 814 North West 1,252 826 Scotland 782 377 Northern 718 446
Annex 1: Jobfinder's grant Grants applied for (up to 6 October) Grants awarded (up to 6 October) Yorkshire and Humberside 734 526 East Midlands and Eastern 1,711 949
Gross weekly wage level Number of grant recipients £200+ gross per week 30 £150-£199 gross per week 320 £100-£149 gross per week 3,691 Less than £100 gross per week 794 Wage not known 18 Note:
This information is from a database held by the company contracted to evaluate the Jobfinder's Grant, on the basis of 4,853 grant recipients inputted to the database up to the end of October.