Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, why the Kickstart Scheme ended in January 2022.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Kickstart has seen over 163,000 jobs started by young people since it launched in September 2020 and the number of people on payrolls is now above pre-pandemic levels for every age group. The Scheme was a temporary response to protect young people from the risk of the scarring effects of long-term unemployment caused by the pandemic.
Kickstart was designed to deliver value for money in uncertainty and successfully responded to huge variations in the labour market and delivery context, including major Covid-19 restrictions, the closure of the Covid Job Retention Scheme and the extension of the scheme for an additional three months. The ongoing economic recovery, with 1.3 million vacancies available in the labour market, now means there is plenty of opportunity for young people to find unsubsidised work.
Kickstart closed to applications from employers and gateways on 17 December 2021 with the final job starts taking place on 31 March 2022. The last Kickstart jobs will come to an end on 30 September 2022.
Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to protect and increase employment levels in (a) Greater London and (b) the London Borough of Bexley.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to supporting everyone who has been affected by the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on the economy and the labour market. Throughout the pandemic the UK Government has provided historic levels of support to the economy – a total of over £370 billion. This includes key DWP programmes as part of the Plan for Jobs, such as Restart and Kickstart alongside other measures to boost work searches, skills, and apprenticeships. Our support was in addition to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (Furlough) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. We have also launched Way to Work - a concerted drive across the UK to help half a million currently out of work people into jobs by the end of June 2022.
DWP offers significant support to unemployed people across London to access employment opportunities through our network of jobcentres. Our Work Coaches provide support on finding a job, help with retraining or skills advice, CV, job applications and access to the new vacancies, as well as signposting to our Jobhelp website.
We are working closely with GLA and London Councils on their No Wrong Door and Good Work for Londoners ambitions – to provide a joined-up approach to work and skills including Skills Bootcamps and Youth Hubs to connect with young people within the community.
The jobcentre team within the Bexley constituency are responding to the needs of the local labour market and work with employers such as Premier Inn, Morrisons, Tesco, Wetherspoons and many more to help them fulfil their recruitment needs. Local employers are attending jobcentres on a regular basis to conduct recruitment activities and interviews.
Sector based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) enable the team to support local employers and provide jobseekers with the skills and experience needed to get a start in a particular employment sector. Recent examples of SWAPs delivered in the area include, ‘Preparing to Work in the Food Industry’ in collaboration with London South East Colleges and Ferndale Foods, and the ‘Preparing to Work in Construction’ SWAP with O'Halloran and O'Brien Ltd.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of extending the Universal Credit Kickstart Scheme to include individuals with disabilities.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Young people with a disability or health condition on Universal Credit who wished to take up the opportunity of a Kickstart job were able to discuss the roles they were interested in and if required, reasonable adjustments could be put into place to enable them to take up a Kickstart job. In October 2021, the decision was taken to extend the delivery of the Kickstart Scheme for an additional three months, to 31 March 2022, so that many more young people at risk of long-term unemployment (including those with disabilities) could benefit from the opportunities of the scheme. The final Kickstart job starts took place on 31 March 2022 and the last jobs will come to an end on 30 September 2022.
The Kickstart Scheme was introduced as part of the Government’s Plan for Jobs, a range of other support is available to provide support to job seekers of all ages, regardless of disadvantage or disability.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support young people on the Kickstart scheme to progress to apprenticeships and further education to up-skill them.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Kickstart Scheme was a job creation programme established to ensure that 16-24 year olds in receipt of Universal Credit would have access to fully-funded six-month job opportunities. Our work with employers has seen over 162,600 jobs having been started by young people, who were most at risk of suffering the scarring effects of long-term unemployment as a result of the pandemic.
Employers participating in the Kickstart Scheme are required to provide employability support to young people to allow them to build their skills in the workplace. This support is intended to improve their chances of progressing to find long-term sustainable work. DWP provided additional grant funding to employers of £1,500 for each young person to support with this.
Young people returning to Universal Credit following the end of a Kickstart job will be given bespoke support appropriate to their circumstances by their Jobcentre Plus Work Coach. This may include coaching or guidance towards other provision or support options if appropriate. Work coaches also promote apprenticeship opportunities to claimants of all ages as a first step in a career as part of their regular interventions. In addition to this, DWP secured an agreement with the Department for Education that Kickstart jobs would not count as previous employment with that employer for the purposes of the apprenticeship incentive. This was intended to encourage employers to actively consider transitioning on a young person into an apprenticeship after their Kickstart job.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data her Department holds on the extent of underspend of the Kickstart Scheme in the financial year 2021-22; and what discussions she has had with Chancellor of the Exchequer on returning that funding to her departmental budgets.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of 8 May 2022, over 162,600 Kickstart jobs had been started by young people. We are delighted that the Kickstart Scheme has provided opportunities for so many young people to gain experience in the workplace that will improve their chances of progressing to find long-term sustainable work.
In the financial year 2021-22, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was provided with £1,617.5m new funding specifically to deliver Kickstart. As this funding was ringfenced, any underspend had to be returned to HMT, as per the normal budgeting process. At Supplementary Estimates, DWP handed back £664.7m of this funding, with any balance on the residual £952.8m funding also due to be returned to HMT at year end.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the average length of time that a person who gets a job through the Kickstart Scheme stays in that job.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions will be monitoring and evaluating the Kickstart scheme throughout its implementation and will continue to evaluate the longer-term outcomes for Kickstart participants after they have completed their six-month Kickstart jobs. This will include an estimate of the young people that remained employed following the conclusion of the six-month Kickstart job (either with their Kickstart employer or moving into a job with a different employer), as well as the number of young people no longer in employment upon leaving a Kickstart role. We aim to publish the findings of the evaluation once complete.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Kickstart scheme placements have been (a) approved, (b) advertised and (c) started by young people in each (i) sector, (ii) region and (iii) nation as of 11 May 2022.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The most recent data available is for the 8 May 2022. At that point over 162,600 Kickstart jobs had been started by young people. The last Kickstart jobs were started by young people on 31 March 2022, and we expect the number of starts to increase further as employers report commencement of employment.
We have previously published the number of jobs approved and advertised as of 31 January 2022, here. At that point, over 235,000 jobs had been advertised and over 305,000 had been approved. Kickstart has now closed to employer applications and, as of March 2022, all approved jobs proceeding to the advertisement stage, have been advertised. As such, these totals will not increase further.
Below are tables listing the number of Kickstart jobs which have been made available and started by young people to date by geographical area of Great Britain and work sector. The figures used are correct as of the 8 May 2022 and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.
Jobs made available (advertised) and job starts quoted here include some unfunded Kickstart jobs. Also included in the Great Britain total are a small number of jobs made available (less than 100 in total) that have an unrecorded job location.
The number of approved jobs is defined as the number of jobs associated with approved applications recorded on the Kickstart application system on the date above. This total excludes approved jobs that have been withdrawn from the Kickstart Scheme by agreement with employers and gateways. This is generally because, over time, some previously approved jobs were removed where the employer chose not to follow up the application.
Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, which has been developed quickly.
The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.
Table 1: Number of Kickstart total available jobs and job starts, Great Britain, by nation and region (figures rounded to nearest 100*)
| Total jobs made available | Total jobs started |
Region / Nation Split | (DATA RETAINED FROM 31/01/22) | (DATA EFFECTIVE 08/05/22) |
|
|
|
Total, Great Britain | 235,000 | 162,600 |
|
|
|
England | 204,000 | 140,200 |
East Midlands | 14,000 | 10,300 |
East of England | 18,000 | 11,800 |
London | 51,000 | 32,800 |
North East | 11,000 | 8,100 |
North West | 30,000 | 20,600 |
South East | 26,000 | 17,300 |
South West | 14,000 | 9,800 |
West Midlands | 21,000 | 15,800 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 19,000 | 13,700 |
Scotland | 19,000 | 14,300 |
Wales | 12,000 | 8,000 |
Table 2: Number of Kickstart total available jobs and job starts, Great Britain, by Sector (figures rounded to the nearest 10*)
Sector Split | Total jobs made available | Total jobs started |
| (DATA RETAINED FROM 31/01/22) | (DATA EFFECTIVE 08/05/22) |
Administration | 57,350 | 40,000 |
Animal Care | 1,610 | 1,330 |
Beauty & Wellbeing | 1,720 | 1,320 |
Business & Finance | 8,500 | 5,930 |
Computing Technology & Digital | 15,840 | 12,360 |
Construction & Trades | 7,230 | 5,190 |
Creative & Media | 20,990 | 16,730 |
Delivery & Storage | 6,380 | 4,430 |
Emergency & Uniform Services | 520 | 360 |
Engineering & Maintenance | 7,080 | 4,900 |
Environment & Land | 4,620 | 3,450 |
Government Services | 1,000 | 710 |
Healthcare | 6,140 | 3,460 |
Home Services | 1,560 | 900 |
Hospitality & Food | 26,380 | 14,060 |
Law & Legal | 650 | 520 |
Managerial | 960 | 660 |
Manufacturing | 6,430 | 4,400 |
Retail & Sales | 34,970 | 26,450 |
Science & Research | 990 | 790 |
Social Care | 4,740 | 2,640 |
Sports & Leisure | 5,920 | 4,170 |
Teaching & Education | 11,000 | 6,800 |
Transport | 900 | 460 |
Travel & Tourism | 1,110 | 580 |
* Due to rounding, sum of figures may not match declared total
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is obligated to take in the event that a Kickstart scheme gateway closes down.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has established grant agreements between employers and gateways operating through the Kickstart Scheme. These agreements set out the responsibilities of a gateway ceasing to operate. Specifically, a Gateway has a responsibility to notify DWP within two working days of any actual or potential failure to comply with any of their obligations under the Grant Agreement, which includes any administrative, financial or managerial difficulties.
In the event that a Gateway is no longer in a position to deliver on its responsibilities, DWP will provide support to young people and employers. Prior to the closure of Kickstart to further young people on 31st March, these might have included placing a young person in a different Kickstart job, or, in the case of an employer, directing them to another gateway or encouraging them to apply to participate in Kickstart directly.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Kickstart Scheme placements have been (a) approved, (b) advertised and (c) started by young people by (i) nation, (ii) region and (iii) sector as of 22 April 2022; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The most recent data available is for the 24 April 2022. At that point over 162,000 Kickstart jobs had been started by young people. The last Kickstart jobs were started by young people on 31 March 2022, and we expect the number of starts to increase further as employers report commencement of employment.
We have previously published the number of jobs approved and advertised as of 31 January 2022 here. At that point, over 235,000 jobs had been advertised and over 305,000 had been approved. Kickstart has now closed to employer applications and, as of March 2022, all approved jobs proceeding to the advertisement stage, have been advertised. As such, these totals will not increase further.
Below are tables listing the number of Kickstart jobs which have been made available and started by young people to date by geographical area of Great Britain and work sector. The figures used are correct as of the 24 April 2022 and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.
Jobs made available (advertised) and job starts quoted here include some unfunded Kickstart jobs. Also included in the Great Britain total are a small number of jobs made available (less than 100 in total) that have an unrecorded job location.
The number of approved jobs is defined as the number of jobs associated with approved applications recorded on the Kickstart application system on the date above. This total excludes approved jobs that have been withdrawn from the Kickstart Scheme by agreement with employers and gateways. This is generally because, over time, some previously approved jobs were removed where the employer chose not to follow up the application.
Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, which has been developed quickly.
The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.
Table 1: Number of Kickstart total available jobs and job starts, Great Britain, by nation and region (figures rounded to nearest 1000*)
| Total jobs made available | Total jobs started |
Region / Nation Split | (DATA RETAINED FROM 31/01/22) | (DATA EFFECTIVE 24/04/22) |
|
|
|
Total, Great Britain | 235,000 | 162,000 |
|
|
|
England | 204,000 | 141,000 |
East Midlands | 14,000 | 10,000 |
East of England | 18,000 | 12,000 |
London | 51,000 | 33,000 |
North East | 11,000 | 8,000 |
North West | 30,000 | 21,000 |
South East | 26,000 | 17,000 |
South West | 14,000 | 10,000 |
West Midlands | 21,000 | 16,000 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 19,000 | 14,000 |
Scotland | 19,000 | 14,000 |
Wales | 12,000 | 8,000 |
Table 2: Number of Kickstart total available jobs and job starts, Great Britain, by Sector (figures rounded to the nearest 10*)
Sector Split | Total jobs made available | Total jobs started |
| (DATA RETAINED FROM 31/01/22) | (DATA EFFECTIVE 24/04/22) |
Administration | 57,350 | 39,920 |
Animal Care | 1,610 | 1,330 |
Beauty & Wellbeing | 1,720 | 1,320 |
Business & Finance | 8,500 | 5,910 |
Computing Technology & Digital | 15,840 | 12,340 |
Construction & Trades | 7,230 | 5,170 |
Creative & Media | 20,990 | 16,700 |
Delivery & Storage | 6,380 | 4,430 |
Emergency & Uniform Services | 520 | 360 |
Engineering & Maintenance | 7,080 | 4,890 |
Environment & Land | 4,620 | 3,450 |
Government Services | 1,000 | 710 |
Healthcare | 6,140 | 3,460 |
Home Services | 1,560 | 900 |
Hospitality & Food | 26,380 | 14,030 |
Law & Legal | 650 | 520 |
Managerial | 960 | 660 |
Manufacturing | 6,430 | 4,390 |
Retail & Sales | 34,970 | 26,410 |
Science & Research | 990 | 790 |
Social Care | 4,740 | 2,640 |
Sports & Leisure | 5,920 | 4,150 |
Teaching & Education | 11,000 | 6,790 |
Transport | 900 | 460 |
Travel & Tourism | 1,110 | 580 |
* Due to rounding, sum of figures may not match declared total
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many young people have benefited from the Kickstart programme since that programme was first launched.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the Honourable Member to the answer given to PQ 149447 for the most recent data on the Kickstart Scheme.