Maria Miller (Shadow Minister (Family), Children, Schools and Families; Basingstoke, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

(1) how many employers have (a) applied for and (b) secured funding from her Department to recruit people who have been unemployed for more than six months in (i) Basingstoke, (ii) Hampshire and (iii) England;

(2) what the cost to her Department has been of funding for employers to recruit people who have been unemployed for over six months since the inception of that funding scheme in (a) Basingstoke, (b) Hampshire and (c) England.

Jim Knight (Minister of State (the South West), Regional Affairs; South Dorset, Labour)

holding answer 29 October 2009

Information on the number of employers applying for and receiving payments through the recruitment subsidy is not available in the format requested. Many of the employers claiming the subsidy have outlets throughout the country, and make their claims on an aggregated basis; it is not possible to identify where the individuals for whom they are claiming are employed.

On 14 October 2009, official statistics were released on the take-up of the Six Month Offer across the UK. This showed that 5,990 jobseeker's allowance customers had used the recruitment subsidy between April and July this year. Provisional data for August also showed that a further 1,500 jobseeker's allowance customers have used the recruitment subsidy.

Information on the cost to the Department of funding for employers to recruit people who have been unemployed for over six months is not available.

The Government have pledged £0.5 billion over two years from April 2009 to fund the additional support from six months, which includes the recruitment subsidy for employers.