The National Audit Office (NAO) warned recently that the government has “limited assurance” over whether the Kickstart scheme, aimed at 16 to 24-year olds, is having any positive effect or creating high-quality jobs. Evidence that Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s £2bn jobs programme for young people is working is very limited, the watchdog said in a report.
While the government says that some 100,000 jobs have been created through the scheme, it is unclear if these roles would have been created anyway, says NAO. Sunak’s Kickstart scheme was designed to create six-month work placements for young people claiming benefits following a sharp rise in unemployment following the pandemic last year. However, the NAO has also cautioned that more could be done to ensure that the jobs created are “targeted at those who need them the most.”
Head of the National Audit Office, Gareth Davies said, “At the start of the pandemic, DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) acted quickly to set up Kickstart to help young people into work when youth unemployment was predicted to rise significantly.”
He added, “However, DWP has limited assurance that Kickstart is having the positive impact intended. It does not know whether the jobs created are of high quality or whether they would have existed without the scheme.” In its report, the NAO added that the labour market reopened in ways that were not originally expected due to following lockdowns. It added this has increased the risk of the government subsidizing jobs that would have been created anyway.
