Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much of the funding available for Remploy worker personal budgets has been allocated and used by individuals.

Personal budgets are an important part of the £8 million People Help and Support Package (PHSP) which was not available for those affected by the 2008 Modernisation Plan. Personal budgets provide additional support where other sources of funding are unavailable. We originally budgeted £4 million for personal budgets but all of the PHSP support, including personal budgets, is allocated based on individual need and there is no specific allocation of funding for each former Remploy disabled employee.

Up to the end of March 2014, DWP has spent in total £4.9 million on providing individual support including £0.4 million on personal budgets. We expect all the original £8 million PHSP funding budget to be utilised by the time the last PHSP period is completed.

As at 21 March 2014, 1,513 disabled former Remploy workers have chosen to work with our Personal Case Workers to find another job and 716 are in work.