Remploy jobs 'not value for money'.

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DISABILITIES

Many factories run by a company funded by the government to employ disabled people are not offering value for money, according to new research.

The study, by spending watchdog the National Audit Office, finds it costs the government an average of £18,000 to employ somebody in a Remploy factory while the average annual wage earned was £11,000, under the Workstep scheme.

It also finds that one-third of organisations delivering the scheme, which aims to help disabled people move from supported to unsupported employment, had failed to permanently employ anyone in the three years since April 2001. Remploy is the scheme's largest provider.

Bob Warner, Remploy's chief executive, said the issues raised in the report had "important implications" for the company's future and that it would respond in detail after consulting on these.

Margaret Hodge, minister for employment and welfare reform, said the government recognised there was more to do to help disabled people into work and it was reviewing its employment programmes for this group.

• Gaining and Retaining a Job: the Department for Work and Pensions' Support for Disabled People from www.nao.gov.uk