Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of effectiveness of Universal Credit provisions on supporting young people under 25 on low incomes or out of work.

The DWP Youth Offer provides individually tailored work coach support to young people aged 16 to 24 who are in the Universal Credit Intensive Work Search group. This includes the Youth Employment Programme, Youth Employability Coaches for young people with additional barriers to finding work, and Youth Hubs across Great Britain.

The Youth Offer is subject to a Process Evaluation, with full findings expected to be shared internally by late 2023. This will inform any improvements or future changes to the Youth Offer policy. The evaluation plans which involve hearing from young people from a range of backgrounds and circumstances and those that work with them, on the services they receive to understand their effectiveness and enable us to make improvements as appropriate.

In addition, the Kickstart evaluation will continue to assess the longer-term outcomes for Kickstart participants after they have completed their six-month jobs. The commissioned process evaluation will conclude in Spring 2023.