§ Mr. Prescottasked the Paymaster General if he will publish details and results of the strengthened availability for work test pilot exercise run from 16 June in 12 unemployed benefit offices.
§ Mr. LeeThe availability for work experiments were conducted in 12 unemployment benefit offices. In half the offices an experimental questionnaire was issued to all new claimants and in the other half the questionnaire was issued after six weeks unemployment. This was supplemented by interviews in some cases. The results were measured against a group of 12 "control" offices.
The results were:
Experimental Offices Control Offices (a) New Claims Experiments Number of initial claim enquiries 14,059 14,467 Number of claims not pursued 1,077 586 (b) Six Week Experiments Number of Claimants reaching 6 weeks unemployment 4,731 6,317 Claims withdrawn within 2 weeks of issue of questionnaire 514 330 (c) Claims disallowed by the independent adjudication authorities on availability grounds (both experiments) 543 53 (d) Appeals against disallowance 59 4 (e) Appeals allowed 25 1 Some of those who did not pursue or withdrew their claims transferred to other venefits and in addition some claimants were helped towards re-employment opportunities through jobcentres.
§ Mr. Gordon Brownasked the Paymaster General (1) if he will list all those Department of Employment offices in which the new work availability test has been introduced;
327W(2) if he will list for each region and for each Department of Employment office in the region the date at which the new work availability test will be introduced.