It has enabled people to earn a decent income and therefore try to find a way out of poverty. A key factor in this is the New Deal. Since its introduction, around 31,500 young people have found work through the New Deal. Over 7,000 people in Scotland, mostly women, have found work through the New Deal for Lone Parents. In our Employment Green Paper on 14 March, we announced a new 100 million package to give lone parents the help they need to return to the workplace.
Employment is the best way of tackling poverty.
So the package to help more lone parents into employment is welcome news. The Select Committee Report said that employment does not necessarily provide a route out of poverty and that low pay remains a problem. This Government directly tackled this by introducing the National Minimum Wage, which will be increased to 4.10 an hour, from October 2001. This is good news for around 120,000 workers in Scotland, in particular women, who the Select Committee Report noted are over-represented in poverty statistics, and are unfortunately still amongst the lowest paid in our society. From April, the Minimum Income Guarantee is being simplified and is being increased to 92.15 for a single pensioner and 140.55 for a couple.