§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proportion of eligible applicants for the New Deal for Disabled People will be excluded in order lo provide a control group for comparative purposes: on what basis they will be selected; and how long the period of exclusion would be before they became eligible for the programme. [147736]
159W
§ Ms Hodge[holding answer 30 January 2001]In pursuing a very innovative New Deal for Disabled People it is important to evaluate how effective the programme is in bringing people on incapacity benefit into work. The most robust methodology available is one based on random assignment and this will be used to evaluate the NDDP national extension. Once the programme is established one in five clients who register with job brokers will be allocated to a control group and have their eligibility deferred. The deferral period will last for 12 months, after which time members of the control group will be invited to take part in the NDDP extension.
The control group will be selected entirely at random. During the deferral period, individuals in the control group will continue to have access to Employment Service programmes, including specialist disability employment programmes, where they meet the eligibility criteria.