On 17 May 2011 David Ruffley MP will visit the Rehab Works Centre in Bury St Edmunds and hold a meeting with the Chief Executive Mr Lutgen Terblanche.

Mr Ruffley said: ' There are nearly five million people of working age on out-of-work benefits and nearly 1.4 million of those have been on these benefits for nearly a decade. Yet many of them can do some work and want to do so. People who can work should work.

But that means help and support must be in place. That is where organisations such as Rehab Works come in. For the last 23 years they have managed and treated people with physical and mental health conditions, helping them to return to normal life at home and work. Whether that is pain management for chronic illness, helping people with depression or training people in CV-writing and interview techniques.

State bodies have a poor record of getting people from welfare into work. So the Government is right to outsource those failing services to private firms like this one in Bury who have a proven track record in getting results. It helps people who have been left on the scrapheap are given back their dignity and self-worth.'

This week, according to the Office of National Statistics the number of unemployed claimants in Bury St Edmunds constituency in April 2011 was 1,423. This represents a rate of 2.6% of the economically active population aged 16 to 64and this is in the lowest one hundred out of 650 UK constituencies. The number of claimants is 57 lower than in April 2010 and 20 higher than in March 2011. These data are not seasonally adjusted.

David said: 'These statistics are moving in the right direction. I hope that in the coming months we will continue to see a fall in the number of people claiming unemployment benefits.'