The Department made changes in response, continuing to develop its rules, systems, and management information over time. The scheme also experienced a number of technical and logistical problems, and attracted some criticism from stakeholders about unclear rules, and a lack of published data on progress. However this created the risk that some funding would go to businesses that would have created jobs anyway. This included greater private sector involvement, so that the jobs more resembled real jobs that would help young people find sustained employment after the scheme. The Department based the Kickstart Scheme on a previous programme, the Future Jobs Fund, which ran from 2009 to 2011, but made changes it did not have time to test before implementation. 1ĭWP set up an initial version of the scheme rapidly.
The Department calculated that its benefits to society will outweigh its costs by up to £1.65 for every £1 invested if it is targeted effectively at the right people and the jobs created would not have otherwise been funded by employers. With a budget of £1.9 billion and a cost of around £7,000 per participant, Kickstart is more than twice the cost per participant of DWP’s next most expensive support scheme. Within the context of the ongoing pandemic, the planned end of furlough in October 2020 and an expected rise in youth unemployment, there was a clear rationale for Kickstart in the summer of 2020. It aimed to create ‘high-quality six-month work placements aimed at those aged 16-24 who are on Universal Credit and are deemed to be at risk of long-term unemployment’ through funding provided to employers to create new jobs. The Kickstart scheme was launched by DWP in September 2020 in response to an expected surge in youth unemployment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has limited assurance that Kickstart is actually having the positive impact intended, according to a new report by the National Audit Office (NAO). Kickstart is a large scale intervention, designed at speed to prevent a significant rise in youth unemployment and the long term “scarring” effect this can have on young people’s life chances.