§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give details of the £150 million programme for 100,000 people announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Budget speech; how it will work; how it will be organised; what changes in benefit regulations it will involve; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. AlisonAs my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in his Budget speech, my right hon. Friend has asked the Manpower Services Commission to work out the details of a new voluntary scheme to help those who have been unemployed for some time to do work of benefit to their community, with a view to introducing the scheme in early summer. I regret, therefore, that the detailed information requested by the hon. Member is not yet available. A further statement will be made in due course.
§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment what schemes his Department is sponsoring concerning voluntary work programmes; how much is involved in the current and next financial years; how much has been spent to date; how many volunteers are involved; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. AlisonThe two schemes sponsored by my Department which currently provide assistance for
1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1. Number of claims received 72,700 67,400 85,300 99,600 75,400 85,600 2. Number of claims decided 49,900 47,000 58,200 61,900 85,700 60,800 3. Number of awards made 35,100 31,200 42,900 41,700 60,200 41,400 Note:
Claims not pursued because the claimant was ineligible on age grounds are included in line 1 but not in line 2.
§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many claimants are drawing the mobility allowance.
254Wprojects of benefit to the community are the community enterprise programme and the community industry scheme.
The community enterprise programme provides temporary employment for long-term unemployed adults on schemes of benefit to the community. Community industry is run by the National Association of Youth Clubs and provides jobs for personally and socially disadvan-taged young people who undertake work projects of benefit to the community.
The amount spent on the two schemes in 1980–81 and the estimate of expenditure for this and the next financial years are set out in the table following:
1980–81 Outturn 1981–82 Estimates (incl. sup-plementaries) 1982–83 Estimates £ million £ million £ million STEP/CEP Incl. admin. 46 95 157 Community industry 19 22 24 The Community Enterprise Programme replaced the Special Temporary Employment Programme (STEP) on 1 April 1981. Existing STEP schemes were transferred to the new programme.
At the end of January 1982 25,000 were employed on the Community Enterprise Programme and 7,000 on the Community Industry Scheme.
I am satisfied with the contribution that these two schemes continue to make to alleviating the worst effects of unemployment. I would also refer the hon. Member to the statement made by my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Budget speech on 9 March (Official Report Vol. 19, c. 732).