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Dept for Education and Employment;Employment Service

Answer

Mr. Rooney: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what have been the destinations of (a) claimants leaving or completing project work and (b) claimants in the selected control areas broken down to show those (i) in full-time employment, (ii) in self-employment, (iii) in part-time employment, (iv) in full-time education or training course, (v) on another Government programme, (vi) unemployed and claiming jobseekers's allowance, (vii) unemployed and not claiming benefit, (viii) in receipt of another benefit and (ix) doing something else. [21517] Mr. Alan Howarth: [holding answer 18 December 1997]: Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its Chief Executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given. Letter from Leigh Lewis to Mr. Terry Rooney, dated 13 January 1998: As the Employment Service is an Executive Agency, the Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the destinations of (a) individuals leaving or completing Project Work and (b) individuals in the selected control areas broken down to show those (i) in full-time employment, (ii) in self-employment, (iii) in part-time employment, (iv) in full-time education or training course, (v) on another Government programme, (vi) unemployed and claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, (vii) unemployed and not claiming benefit, (viii) in receipt of another benefit and (ix) doing something else. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency. I would like to apologise to you for the delay in supply the information you have asked for. Unfortunately, information is not available in precisely the format you have requested. Information on the destinations of Project Work participants at a national level is given in Tables 1 and 2. The figures refer to the period July-November 1997. Information on the two Project Work pilots in Hull and Medway and Maidstone is given in Table 3 for the period March 1996-June 1997. It may help if I explain that before entering the work experience element of Project Work, clients are given a Restart Interview following by a 13 week period of intensive job search help. During this time, participants are offered the full range of programmes available to long-term unemployed people, as well as a number of interviews with an adviser. If the person is still unemployed at the end of this period of intensive help, they are required to attend a 13 week period of work experience. This is intended to focus on the participant's job goals and work experience that is of benefit to the local community. Project Work was initially piloted in two locations during 1996-97, and was expanded subsequently to cover 31 locations. There are no selected control areas for expanded Project Work. I hope this is helpful. Project Work Table 1: Outcomes from 13 week period of intensive job search help: (from Restart Interview to work experience referral interview): July 1997-November 1997 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Jobs{1} Training for Work (TfW) Transfers to other benefits 5,224 2,210 2,353 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} ES placings including full-time, part-time and self-employed vacancies. Table 2: Outcomes from 13 week period of work experience: July 1997-November 1997 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Jobs{1} Full time education Full time Training/TfW 1,210 39 259 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} This includes full-time and part-time employment and self-employed. Table 3: Outcomes from the Project Work Pilots: March 1996-June 1997 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Jobs Full time education and Other benefit Other reasons training Pilots 761 87 409 444 Control 424 79 188 235 _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

21517; 304 c178-9W

Session

1997-98

Subjects

Applications Jobseeker's allowance Employment schemes Recipients Part-time employment Social security benefits Unemployment benefits Project Work

Contains statistics

Yes