§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many disabled people have been given assistance(a) to obtain employment and (b) to remain in employment in each of the last four quarters for which information is available; what was the expenditure during that period by her Department on the access to work scheme; and what sums were obtained from employers towards the cost of the scheme during the period. [2742]
§ Mr. ForthResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. G. Fogden to Mr. Dafydd Wigley, dated 11 November 1996:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the number of disabled people assisted to obtain employment and to remain in employment in each of the last four quarters; and what was spent on disabled people through the Access to Work programme, and the amounts contributed by employers.The number of disabled people the Employment Service has helped to obtain and remain in work through the Access to Work programme in the four quarters to September 1996 is given in the attached Table 1.Expenditure on Access to Work brought to account during the same period is given in Table 2. The pattern of expenditure means that each quarter's expenditure does not necessarily relate directly to the number of people helped in that quarter.The Employment Service does not receive money from employers or others towards the cost of providing help through Access to Work. Since June 1996, for employed people, Access to Work has contributed up to 80% of the approved costs of help between £300 and £10,000, and 100% of costs above £10,000.I hope this is helpful.
Table 1: People helped through access to work Quarter ending New people helped to obtain work New people helped to remain in work People in work being helped on a continuing basis December 1995 501 1,738 4,061 March 1996 367 1,006 4,098 June 1996 331 330 3,423 September 1996 334 456 4,233
Table 2: Access to work expenditure Quarter ending ATW expenditure £ million December 1995 4.7 March 1996 5.0 June 1996 3.5 September 1996 3.0