§ Mr. Sheermanasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the annual cost of the job-splitting scheme as a crude figure and as a percentage of job creation schemes; if he will give the number of entrants to date according to sex and marital status, subdivided according to age, and further subdivided according to the preceding length of unemployment; and if he will make a statement about the relative success and the possibilities of extending the scheme.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkIn 1983–84, expenditure on the job splitting scheme was £323,000, slightly over one tenth of 1 per cent. of total expenditure in that year on the employment and training measure. 1,023 applications have been approved to date, creating 2,046 part-time jobs. Women were engaged initially in three quarters of the jobs created and young people under 25 were engaged in just under a half. Further information on marital status and length of unemployment could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Take-up under this experimental scheme has been disappointing. However, as my right hon. Friend announced on November 12 1984, at column 444, changes 92W are to be made to the scheme designed to improve its attractiveness to employers and thus the help it can give to the unemployed.