§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many families(a) in Coventry, South, (b) in the West Midlands Region and (c) nationally will benefit from Government measures aimed at helping lone parents balance work and family life. [127245]
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§ Ms Hodge[holding answer 26 June 2000]: We do not yet have information about how many families will benefit as a result of the Work-Life Balance Campaign. This is a general campaign from which everybody stands to benefit: the economy; businesses; society; families, including those headed by lone parents; and individuals.
The New Deal for Lone Parents is a specific measure designed to help those lone parents on Income Support into work. Between October 1998 when the programme was rolled out nationally and the end of March 2000, NDLP has helped 94 lone parents in the Coventry, South constituency into jobs. The figure for the West Midlands Employment Service Region is 4,021 and the figure nationally is 44,640. Taking into account the earlier phases of NDLP the figure is 50,911. The Government have recently announced an expansion to this programme to allow support to be given to more lone parents.