Unemployment (Hansard, 11 February 1998)

§ Mrs. Liddell

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Dennis Roberts to Mr. David Willetts, dated 11 February 1998: The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked the Director of the Office for National Statistics to reply to your recent question on participants in each of the four New Deal options being counted as unemployed for the purposes of the claimant count; and whether they will fall within the Labour Force Survey measure of unemployment. The Director has asked me to reply in his absence. All New Deal participants will remain in the claimant count whilst they are on the Gateway programme. Once a claimant leaves JSA to take-up one of the four New Deal options they will cease to be included in the claimant count. Of the four New Deal options, only those taking up the full-time education or training option may be classified as ILO unemployed in the Labour Force Survey, though this will be dependent on their job search activities satisfying the definition of ILO unemployment. This counts as unemployed people who are: a) without a paid job; b) available to start work within the next two weeks and c) have either looked for work in the last four weeks or are waiting to start a job already obtained. Generally though, those on the full-time education or training option will be counted as economically inactive in the Labour Force Survey, rather than ILO unemployed or in employment. Those taking up the New Deal employment option will be recorded in the employment statistics as employees (or self-employed) and those on the Environmental Task Force and voluntary sector options as on Government-supported programmes. ONS is committed to presenting and explaining the effects of New Deal as the policy is implemented.