To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if she will review the role of LETS within areas of high unemployment. [4880]

The Government believes that work is the best form of welfare for people of working age. Our Welfare to Work objectives are to provide work incentives, to reduce poverty and welfare dependency and to strike a new balance between rights and responsibilities. A programme of monitoring and evaluation is under way to enable us to ensure that Jobseeker's Allowance contributes to achieving our objectives.In addition to this major evaluation exercise, we shall also keep the individual benefit rules, including the treatment of the Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS), under active consideration as we develop our plans.