§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will provide a breakdown of the estimated expenditure of the £178 million budget for the New Deal for Disabled People which is not accounted for by funding of(a) innovative schemes and (b) personal advisers. [53891]
§ Mr. DenhamThe New Deal for Disabled People is being funded with £195 million from the Windfall Tax, which will be used over the lifetime of the current Parliament. £5 million will fund a number of Innovative Schemes which will test new ways of helping disabled people into work, and the result of the first tranche of bids was announced on 16 July. A further £17 million (£5 million in 1998–99, and a further £12 million in 1999–2000) will be used to pilot a new Personal Adviser service for disabled people, initially in 12 areas, offering advice and support on an individual basis to disabled people who want to move towards work. Some funds will be made available for research and evaluation of the New Deal, and for publicity and information. Decisions about how the rest of the money will be spent will be made in the light of information provided by the Innovative Schemes and the Personal Adviser pilots.