§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when she will announce the results of the second round of bids for the New Deal for Disabled People and the levels of funding allocated. [52237]
§ Mr. DenhamThe New Deal for Disabled People is being funded with £195 million from the Windfall Tax. £5 million of this will be used to fund a number of Innovative Schemes which will test new ways of helping disabled people into work. The results of the first tranche of bids for Innovative Schemes was announced on 16 July and 10 schemes were successful, costing a total of £2.4 million. The closing date for second tranche bids is 9 October and we expect to announce the results in early spring 1999, depending on the volume of bids received. £2.6 million will be available for the second tranche.
We also plan to pilot a new Personal Adviser service for disabled people, initially in twelve areas. These will cover over a quarter of a million people on incapacity benefits, and will offer advice and support on an individual basis to disabled people who want to move towards work. Pilots in the first six areas, to be run by the Employment Service, will start in October. The remainder will be put out to open tender and will start running next year. £5 million has been made available to fund the pilots during 1998–99, and a further £12 million has been set aside for 1999–2000.