§ Mr. HealeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) what procedures exist to monitor the receipt, processing and outcome of applications for financial assistance to purchase wheelchairs through Access to Work; [43934]
(2) how much financial assistance was given to purchase wheelchairs through Access to Work (a) in total and (b) broken down by Employment Service district in each of the last five years; [43936]
(3) how many applications have been (a) received and (b) accepted for financial assistance to purchase wheelchairs through Access to Work (i) in total and (ii) broken down by Employment Service district in each of the last five years; [43935]
(4) what proportion of the financial assistance to purchase wheelchairs through Access to Work during the past five years has been spent on (a) indoor/outdoor powered wheelchairs and (b) manual wheelchairs; [43937]
(5) what was the average cost of (a) all wheelchairs, (b) manual wheelchairs and (c) indoor/outdoor powered wheelchairs obtained through Access to Work in each of the last five years. [43938]
§ Mr. Alan HowarthResponsibility for the question has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its Chief Executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply.
Letter from Peter Collis to Mr. John Healey, dated 2 June 1998:
The Secretary of State for Education and Employment has asked Leigh Lewis, the Chief Executive of the Employment Service, to reply to your questions about applications for Access to Work, and the financial assistance given towards the purchase of wheelchairs through the programme during the last five years. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to Mr. Lewis. I am replying in his absence.I must start by saying that we do not monitor separately the number of applications for wheelchairs or their cost. We do, of course, note details of equipment provided in individual case files but the Employment Service does not analyse information to the level of detail you requested. However, we can supply the following related information.The Employment Service does monitor regularly the receipt, processing and outcomes of all applications for Access to Work. In addition, the Placing, Assessment and Counselling Teams have standards to meet when dealing with applications. For all 366W applications for the 12 months ending in March, 93% of applicants had a decision on help within the standard of 12 working days, and 83% received at least initial help within 60 working days.The Employment Service analyses cost information by broad categories. Wheelchairs come within the Special Aids and Equipment category but their cost cannot be separately identified. Expenditure on Special Aids and Equipment is not broken down below regional level and is available only for the last four years. This is since the introduction of Access to Work in June 1994. Table 1 below offers a regional breakdown.Table 2 sets out the total number of people benefiting nationally over the past five years under Access to Work (and the previous Special Schemes), which include people given help with wheelchairs. We do not identify applications for wheelchairs separately but we have details, for the past two years, of the number of people making applications for Special Aids and Equipment. Again, we have a regional, but not a district, breakdown.I am sorry I have not been able to answer your questions more fully. However, if you would like to discuss this further, you may care to contact Tom Gawn from the Disability Services Division, with policy responsibility for Access to Work. He can be contacted at Rockingham House, 123 West Street, Sheffield, S1 4ER or on 0114 259 6960.I hope this is helpful.
Table 1: Cost of special aids and equipment by region: 1994–95 to 1997–98 £ million 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 East Midlands 1.1 1.1 0.6 0.4 London and South East 3.2 4.2 2.0 2.0 North West 1.2 1.3 0.7 0.8 Northern 0.6 0.7 0.3 0.3 Scotland 0.8 1.0 0.3 0.5 South West 0.9 1.2 0.6 0.6 Wales 0.5 0.5 0.2 0.3 West Midlands 1.2 1.2 0.5 0.7 Yorkshire and the Humber 1.2 1.2 0.4 0.6 Total (rounded) 10.7 12.5 5.5 6.2
Table 2: Number of people helped through Access to Work 1993–94 to 1997–98; number of people receiving special aids and equipment (SAE) by region: 1996–97 and 1997–98 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 East Midlands — — — 389 447 London and South East — — — 1,443 2,421 North West — — — 759 1,098 Northern — — — 252 498 Scotland — — — 350 429 South West — — — 450 611 Wales — — — 235 298 West Midlands — — — 551 828 Yorkshire and the Humber — — — 618 753 Total SAE — — — 5,047 7,383 All applications 8,172 10,394 13,577 10,119 12,825