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12 Mar 2010 : Column 496W—continued
| Table 2 : Median Earnings of disabled and non-disabled staff, broken down by full-time and part-time working patterns for each business within DWP and its executive agencies | ||||
| Full - time | Part - time | |||
| Non disabled | Disabled | Non disabled | Disabled | |
The statistics are drawn from Departmental records and have been collected by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) from the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES). The latest published statistics are for 31 March 2009.
Directgov: Contracts
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was spent on (a) contractors and (b) strategic advisers under the directgov programme in (i) 2007-08 and (ii) 2008-09; and what the estimated expenditure on each is in 2009-10. [320717]
Angela Eagle: The information is as follows:
(a) Directgov spent the following on contractors:
(i) 2007-08 £3.0 million
(ii) 2008-09 £7.4 million
The estimated spend on contractors in 2009-10 is £8.2 million.
It should be noted that the increase from 2007-08 to 2008-09 was to deliver programmes such as website convergence and cross-government service transformation. The percentage of Directgov's budget spent on contractors remained the same.
Contractors are required to fill short-term posts and posts where it has not been possible to recruit permanent staff due to their specialist nature.
(b) There were no strategic adviser costs incurred in 2007-08 or 2008-09.
The strategic adviser costs for 2009-10 are included within the spend shown for that year. This is a short-term post and providing the information separately would allow the individual's day rate to be calculated which is both commercially sensitive and considered to be personally identifiable data.
Contractor posts are tendered to ensure Directgov obtains high quality candidates and achieve value for money. This is underpinned by benchmarking the rates and charges to ensure they are within benchmark guidelines. Directgov also negotiates day rates and margins in line with, if not better than, than standard government contract rates.
Directgov is working across Departments to enable transformation of digital public service delivery and has the potential to enable Government to make substantial savings in shifting from traditional to digital channels and for those channels to be used.
Disabled People
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 25 February 2010, Official Report, column 86WS, on Right to Control (Trailblazer sites) how many bids her Department received to become Trailblazer sites; and what the name was of each bidder. [320934]
Jonathan Shaw: The Department received a strong field of bids from 43 local authorities wishing to take part in the Right to Control Trailblazers. Taking into account joint bids, this amounted to bids from 36 potential Trailblazer areas.
The Trailblazers that were selected represent a good mix in terms of demography, geography, and different types of local authorities (two-tier authorities, unitary authorities, metropolitan and London boroughs).
The local authorities that submitted a bid were:
Joint bids
Coventry and Warwickshire
Barnsley and Sheffield(1)
Greater Manchester(1) this includes Manchester City, Bury, Trafford, Stockport, and Oldham
Islington and Westminster
Single bids
Barnet(1)
Bexley
Bournemouth
Blackpool
Bradford
Calderdale
Central Bedfordshire
Darlington
Derbyshire
Durham
Enfield
Essex(1)
Hampshire
Kent
Kirklees
Lambeth
Leicester(1)
Newham(1)
Norfolk
Northamptonshire
Nottinghamshire
Peterborough
Portsmouth
Redbridge
Redcar and Cleveland(1)
Rotherham
St. Helens
Staffordshire
Stockton
Surrey(1)
Wakefield
Worcestershire
(1 )Selected Trailblazers.
Economic Situation
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for which policies implemented as part of the Government's response to the recession her Department is responsible; when each such policy was determined; what timetable has been set for the implementation of each such policy; and what funding under each budget heading has been allocated to each such policy. [309340]
Angela Eagle: The Government have made available up to £5 billion additional discretionary spending to support people through the course of the recession. This has been used in a variety of ways-and the bulk of this has been for this Department to lead on. Of this £5 billion we expect to spend £2.1 billion in 2009-10 and £2.9 billion in 2010-11.
As a result of the investment that the Government have made, claimant unemployment was over 450,000 lower at the end of 2009 than was expected at the time of the Budget 2009. This has also allowed us to use this funding flexibly to ensure it can be directed to where it can support people in the greatest need. To maintain such flexibility, we have not ring-fenced allocations to each element.
The following DWP programmes are funded from this budget:
Increasing resources available to Jobcentre Plus, employment programmes and local authorities
We announced in the 2008 pre-Budget report, and in the Budget 2009, that we would be providing extra funding to Jobcentre Plus to effectively handle the higher volume of customers through the recession. That funding was provided immediately and Jobcentre Plus has increased staffing levels by 16,000. The funding also allowed increase in programme budgets to core programmes including the new deals and the flexible new deal. Benefit exit rates have been maintained and over 330,000 people left JSA in January alone.
Additional support before redundancy
In November 2008, we quadrupled the funding to deliver the Jobcentre Plus' Rapid Response Service which offers support to employers and workers who are facing
redundancy. Since the service was expanded, more than 4,000 employers have taken up this support.
Additional day one support for all
From the start of a new jobseeker's allowance claim, customers can access improved help from Jobcentre Plus to get them back to work quickly. This support can include one-to-one adviser support, coaching and access to Local Employment Partnership vacancies.
In April 2009, we introduced new specialist help for professionals and executives, delivered by external recruitment agencies, to help them with jobsearch techniques and give them advice specific to their needs and experience. In our December White Paper "Building Britain's Recovery", we announced our intention to extend this support further by offering professionals and executives follow-up sessions.
Every jobseeker's allowance customer who remains unemployed for six months or more now have access to a substantially improved range of services including access to recruitment subsidies vouchers, work-focused training and volunteering placements and help to become self employed through the six month offer.
The six month offer was introduced in April 2009 and provides opportunities for up to 230,000 people. Between April 2009 to October 2009, 39,420 people has taken up the support offered through the six month offer.
Furthermore, access to self employment support and the financial credit is now available to all jobseekers after three months.
Young Persons Guarantee and the Future Jobs Fund
The Young Persons Guarantee launched on 25 January 2010 guarantees all young jobseekers aged 18-24 a job, training or work experience from six months unemployment. From April 2010 young people will be required to take up one of the options on offer if they are still unemployed after 10 months. The Future Jobs Fund is a key element of the guarantee, where local authorities, partnerships and others (such as third sector or social enterprises) are able to bid to create jobs through the fund.
The first FJF jobs began in October 2009, and to date Government have agreed to fund up to 110,000 FJF jobs; around 65 per cent. of the 170,000 jobs the fund is targeted to fund.
The YPG is also supported by over 400,000 Government funded training, internship, work experience and job opportunities. This will include a target of 16,000 apprenticeship places through the FJF.
Graduates are also eligible for a new graduate guarantee, where any new graduate still unemployed after six months is guaranteed access to an internship, training or help to become self-employed.
The BYB campaign was launched in July 2009. This national campaign delivers a variety of measures to help young people aged 16-24 into work, or move closer to the labour market. As well as encouraging business to support young people by offering jobs, apprenticeships and work experience places, it will create 10,000 mentoring places, 5,000 short term work experience placements and 20,000 longer term non-graduate internships, as well as supporting the graduate internships already announced. Places are available now.
870 organisations have signed up to BYB to date (at 8 March 2010), with the number growing all the time.
Additional support for older workers
In the "Building Britain's Recovery" White Paper we committed to provide additional back to work support to people aged 50 and over. This support includes more time with a personal adviser, access to specialist back to work support and giving people early access to the six month offer.
These new measures will be delivered from spring 2010.
Improvements to the help provided to homeowners through the Support for Mortgage Interest scheme were introduced in January 2009 for new working age claims, which:
shortened the waiting period to 13 weeks
increased capital limit to £200,000,
introduced 2 year time limit for new JSA claims
froze the standard interest rate used to calculate Support for Mortgage Interest at 6.08 per cent. for all customers (including pensioners), until the end of June 2010 benefiting around 220,000 homeowners.
Once the standard interest rate freeze ends, the Government intend to move towards a fairer, more affordable approach, that more closely reflects mortgage interest rates.
These changes demonstrate very clearly the Government's commitment to provide additional support to those facing financial difficulties and help protect them against repossessions and will be reviewed once the housing market conditions improve.
Employment Schemes
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many Jobcentre Plus offices have used (a) extended postal signing, (b) telephone jobsearch reviews, (c) suspension of signing, (d) 13-week interviews by telephone and (e) 13-week group sessions in each month since flexible interventions were first used; and how many Jobcentre Plus customers were the subject of each such practice; [309220]
(2) what estimate she has made of the number of Jobcentre Plus offices that have used flexible interventions in each month since they were first used; and how many customers have been the subject of such interventions. [309221]
Jim Knight: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Darra Singh. I have asked him to provide the right hon. Member with the information requested.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions asking how many Jobcentre Plus offices have used (a) extended postal signing, (b) telephone jobsearch reviews, (c) suspension of signing, (d) 13-week interviews by telephone and (e) 13-week group sessions in each month since flexible interventions were first used; and how many Jobcentre Plus customers were the subject of each such practice; and what estimate she has made of the number of Jobcentre Plus offices that have used flexible interventions in each month since they were first used; and how many customers have been the subject of such interventions. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Flexible interventions were introduced at a time of rapidly increasing demand on our services and before we had the opportunity to increase our staffing levels to meet those demands. We have subsequently recruited additional staff which in turn has allowed
us to reduce the number of flexible interventions deployed. In some circumstances, we have decided to deploy our flexibilities into our core business as part of our improved delivery model, in order to further improve customer service. During the economic downturn, despite these increased demands, Jobcentre Plus maintained and improved performance and is meeting all of its key performance targets.
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