Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Rutley and Esther McVey

Monday 8th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[David Rutley (Macclesfield) (Con)]

7. What steps his Department is taking to help unemployed people find work and start their own business.

[The Minister for Employment (Esther McVey)]

The new enterprise allowance scheme offers mentoring support to help people on benefits develop a business plan and a weekly allowance that is payable over six months. That successful scheme has already supported 50,000 new start-up businesses.

[David Rutley]

Given the progress that is being made with the new enterprise allowance, what steps are being proposed to extend its benefits so that more people can establish more businesses?

[Esther McVey]

My hon. Friend is correct that we need to extend the scheme, and we will do so. People can be referred to places through to March 2016. Not only are we extending the time limit for people to apply; we are extending eligibility to the partners of people who are on jobseeker’s allowance or employment and support allowance, and to those on income support. It is a successful scheme. We want to keep it that way and to expand it as much as we can.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Rutley and Esther McVey

Monday 23rd June 2014 Commons Chamber

[David Rutley (Macclesfield) (Con)]

13. What assessment he has made of recent trends in employment in the private sector.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Esther McVey)]

There are more people in private sector jobs than ever before, up more than 2 million since the 2010 election.

[David Rutley]

Given the strong growth in self-employment in recent years and innovative schemes such as the Pop-Up Business School, which has helped people in Macclesfield start their own business, what steps are the Government taking to encourage the unemployed actively to explore opportunities in self-employment?

[Esther McVey]

My hon. Friend, who is a Harvard graduate and has been a senior executive in many high-flying companies, has a huge interest in people setting up their own business. This Government introduced the new enterprise allowance, which has led to 2,000 people a month setting up new businesses. We have done videos with people such as Levi Roots to reach out into different communities, and the link-up, start-up programme enables employers to speak to people who hope to be able to set up their own business.