Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much and what proportion of the £2 billion of funding for the Kickstart scheme announced by the Government in A Plan for Jobs in July 2020 has been (a) allocated and (b) spent.
£2bn has been allocated to Kickstart to create hundreds of thousands of 6-month job placements for young people aged 16-24, to improve their long term employability. Kickstart placements commenced in October 2020 and eligible young people will be able to start new Kickstart jobs until December 2021, with the final cohort of six-month jobs coming to an end in Summer 2022. Kickstart funding is not capped and we expect to use all funding to provide jobs for young people by the end of the scheme. Details of spend is unavailable at this time but will become available following the completion of the audited accounts.