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New Deal

Volume 408: debated on Thursday 10 July 2003

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21.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the use of the windfall tax on privatised utilities to fund the New Deal. [124664]

The New Deal for Young People and the New Deal for 25+ have both contributed significantly to cutting long-term youth and long-term unemployment by more than three-quarters since 1997.Almost 430,000 long-term unemployed 18 to 24-year-olds have found jobs through NDYP, while ND25+ had helped more than 145,000 older people back into work and over 193,000 people have found employment through the New Deal for Lone Parents.The Government have established a comprehensive program of independent and in-house evaluation for all the New Deals, and is fully committed to ensuring that the lessons learned contribute to continuous improvements in the performance of the New Deals in helping people into work.This evaluation program has demonstrated the success of the New Deal. In 2000, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) found that, without NDYP, the level of long-term youth unemployment would have been twice as high as it actually was. Independent evaluation evidence also confirms the overwhelmingly positive impact of NDLP in helping lone parents into work and suggests that the programme more than doubles the employment chances of participants.