§ Mr. MillerTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment (1) what evidence he has that legislation requiring employers to contribute towards the cost of employing people with disabilities, under the access to work scheme, will benefit the disabled work force, and not be a disincentive to the employment of such workers;
(2) when he will announce the maximum level of aid which people with disabilities can receive over a five-year period under access to work;
(3) when he will specify the maximum contribution an employer will be expected to make over any five-year period under access to work;
(4) what estimates his Department has made of the number of people with disabilities to receive assistance under the access to work scheme in its first year of operation;
(5) how many people with disabilities received assistance from the adaption of premises and equipment, special aids to employment, personal reader service and the fares to work schemes, in the last year for which statistics are available;
(6) who will assess eligibility for assistance under access to work;
(7) what differences he proposes in the eligibility conditions for access to work compared to adaption of premises and equipment, special aids to employment, personal reader service and the fares to work schemes.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythMy right hon. Friend the Secretary of State made a statement about access to work to the House on 22 June 1993,Official Report, column 102. Access to work will replace and extend four of the Department's current special schemes and enable us to help more disabled people and meet a much wider range of their employment-related needs. To help fund the extra costs we will expect employers to contribute 50 per cent. of the cost of help, up to a ceiling, to employees who enter the scheme after working for them six months or more. Both recent and earlier research suggests that employers would be willing to make a reasonable contribution. They already do in the current adaptations to premises and equipment scheme.
There are a number of issues on access to work on which we have still to make decisions. In addition to the 352W limits on individual entitlement and employer contributions, these include transitional arrangements for existing beneficiaries of the current special schemes, for how long those helped as new recruits will remain exempt from the employer contributions and whether there will be special arrangements for certain types of firm. My right hon. Friend is currently listening to the views of a number of interested parties and individuals and hopes to make decisions as soon as possible. Once my right hon. Friend has taken decisions on these areas it is intended to make an announcement to the House.
The numbers helped through each of the four special schemes which will be replaced and extended by access to work were: adaptations to premises and equipment—284; special aids to employment—5,255; personal reader service—796; fares to work—1,789. We hope to help around 9,000 people in the first year of operation of access to work; each person will have access to a wider range of individual items of help.
Eligibility for access to work will be assessed by disability employment advisers, who are part of the Employment Service's network of placing assessment and counselling teams—PACTs. Eligibility will be based on registrability under the terms of the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944. Formal registration will not, however, be required. Formal registration under the 1944 Act is required for the special aids to employment and fares to work schemes. For the personal reader service, beneficiaries must be registered as blind or partially sighted, but need not be registered as disabled under the 1944 Act. Formal registration under the 1944 Act is not required for the adaptations to premises and equiprnent schemes.