Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost was to the public purse of the New Enterprise Allowance in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016/17 and (c) 2017/18; and what estimate she has made of the projected cost for 2018-19.

The Department for Work and Pensions spent the following amounts on New Enterprise Allowance in 2015/16 and 2016/17:

Please note that we cannot provide information for the current 2017/18 financial year because the Department’s accounts for 2017/18 are subject to audit and any early release of data in the requested format would undermine proper and future publication.

Budgets for 2018-19 have not yet been finalised.