§ Ms LynneTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) if she will list the employers contacted by her Department during the last three months in respect of providing voluntary funding for adaptations for disabled employees under the access to work scheme; [41794]
(2) how many employers have been contacted by letter by her Department during the last three months concerning the voluntary payment of adaptations for disabled employees undertaken under the access to work scheme; and if she will indicate the number of employers who (a) offered to pay voluntary contribution in full, (b) offered to part-fund costs and (c) expressed objections to paying any costs in part or in full. [41793]
§ Mr. ForthResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 7 November 1995:
846WThe Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions about employers contacted by letter concerning voluntary contributions towards adaptations for disabled people undertaken under the Access to Work programme.The information you ask for is not kept centrally, but it is our policy to ask every employer to consider whether they are able to make a contribution.The Government launched the Access to Work programme in June 1994 without a requirement by employers to contribute towards the cost of help. However, it has always been our practice to seek voluntary contributions from employers. There are also some cases where the help we provide for individual disabled people clearly gives additional benefits to the employer's business. In those cases, we negotiate what it is reasonable for the taxpayer to pay and we expect the employer to pay the rest.The number of applications made under Access to Work and the scale and the costs of help are increasing. We therefore decided that all Placing, Assessment and Counselling Teams (PACTs) should adopt a common approach to employers to ensure that the approach was made at the appropriate level within companies. Local PACT managers are responsible for administering the Access to Work programme, including asking employers for contributions toward the cost of help.I am sorry I cannot be more helpful.
§ Ms LynneTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many payments of(a) £100 or less, (b) between £100 and £250, (c) between £250 and £500, (d) between £500 and £1,000 (e) between £1,000 and £5,000 and (f) over £5,000 have been made under the access to work scheme since June 1994. [41798]
§ Mr. ForthResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 7 November 1995:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the distribution of payments made under the Access to Work programme since June 1994.We do not regularly gather details of the distribution of the cost of help given under Access to Work and do not therefore have the information you ask for. However, we have recently received sample information of spend during the first 3 months of the current year, and I can say that the cost of providing special aids and equipment, which amounts to around 70% of the total cost of the programme, fell within the following bands:
Cost of providing special aids and equipment Percentage of people assisted Under £100 19 £101 to £259 14 £251 to £500 22 £501 to £1,000 20 £1,001 to £5,000 23 Over £5,000 4 In 1994/95, the first year of Access to Work, 10,349 people wer helped and so far this year about 6,000 new people have benefited.
I hope this is helpful.
§ Ms LynneTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when she expects to receive recommendations from her departmental review team regarding the future of the access to work scheme. [41797]
§ Mr. ForthResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 7 November 1995:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the timing of the departmental review of Access to Work.I expect the review to be completed and a report and recommendations presented to the Secretary of State by the end of December 1995.I hope this is helpful.
§ Ms LynneTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will indicate how many applications for assistance under the access to work scheme have exceeded the £21,000 ceiling since June 1994; and what proportion that represents of the total number of applications made for assistance under the scheme. [41791]
847W
§ Mr. ForthResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 7 November 1995:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the number of applications for help under the Access to Work programme since June 1994 that have exceeded £21,000. The information you have requested is not available.While there is a ceiling of £21,000 on Access to Work help for an individual over a 5 year period, Regional Directors have authority to exceed this limit in exceptional circumstances. We do not maintain records on applications for help which exceed this ceiling but information gathered in June this year showed that we had agreed packages of help of over £21,000 for 70 people. This figure is included in the total of 10,023 people helped by Access to Work, in the period from 6 June 1994 to 31 May 1995.I hope this is helpful.
§ Ms LynneTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) if she will list the research commissioned by her Department during the last six months as part of her Department's review into the access to work scheme; [41795]
(2) if she will make it her policy to publish the results of all research undertaken or commissioned by her Department as part of the departmental review into access to work. [41796]
§ Mr. ForthResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 7 November 1995:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the research undertaken and commissioned for the review of Access to Work.We have commissioned Social and Community Planning Research to undertake research to feed into the Access to Work review. As an independent organisation they will be free to publish their research in due course. We expect that a report of the review will be published after it has been presented to the Secretary of State.I hope this is helpful.