HC Deb 04 July 2002 vol 388 cc488-9W
Sir Nicholas Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the moneys owed to course providers following the closure of the individual learning account scheme. [64409]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

Following the closure of the individual learning account (ILA) programme on 23 November 2001, at the end of June £16.8 million of claims from 267 registered learning providers has been withheld pending the results of investigations.

Mr. Andrew Turner

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what payments(a) have been claimed, (b) have been paid, (c) are outstanding and (d) are in dispute with ILA providers in each month since August 2001. [602311

Mr. Ivan Lewis

[holding answer 10 June 2002]The amounts claimed, paid and withheld at the end of each month from August 2001 to 28 June 2002 are set out in the following table. The amounts in the withheld column relate to those claims from registered individual learning account (ILA) providers which are subject to validation checks and/or investigation. The claims withheld are those which are in dispute.

At the time of closure on 23 November a total of £19.4 million relating to learning episodes confirmed on the ILA centre system was awaiting payment and therefore outstanding. Following validation checks payments for eligible learning relating to this amount were subsequently made in December and January.

ILA programme rules allowed bookings to be made six months in advance of the learning episode, so booked learning could be confirmed up to and including 22 May 2002. A paper-based claims and payment system was introduced in January 2002 to allow providers to confirm and claim for delivery of this advanced booked learning. Claims, payments and amounts withheld are reflected in the table. In addition an estimated sum of £5.6 million remains unclaimed relating to advance booked learning by providers who cannot be invited to claim until all investigations are complete.

£
Month (a) Amount claimed (b) Amount paid (c) Amount withheld/in dispute
August 2001 24,672,600 126,216,174 1,580,245
September 2001 26,401,842 25,818,692 583,150
October 2001 39,173,099 139,251,249 0
November 2001 51,334,141 31,789,658 113,100
December 2001 0 3,495,594 11,280,502
January 2002 0 12,241,238 2,422,450
February 2002 559,290 1507,636 107,854
March 2002 3,299,073 11,937,840 1,365,652
April 2002 2,078,824 11,555,490 540,489
May 2002 1,048,282 1928,924 199,303
June 2002 380,898 1382,371 68,672
1 These payments include amounts released from earlier claims which had been previously withheld.