Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department's spend on the youth offer was in the last financial year.

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

Previously, the Youth Offer was only available for those searching for work. As of the 25 September 2023, this been expanded to include to include additional young people on Universal Credit not currently searching for work, including young parents and carers.

The information regarding the Department’s total spend on the Youth Offer is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The information regarding the Department’s spend on grants to support the opening and operation of Youth Hubs in each financial year since they were launched is not held.

The indicative Youth Hub Work Coach costs for the previous three financial years are:

2020/2021 - £1.1m

2021/2022 - £5.4m

2022/2023 - £4.8m

NB:

• This excludes estates, digital, support and other operations costs.
• This data is derived from DWP's Activity Based Model (ABM) and/or Departmental Activity Based Model (DABM) and is unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only. It has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standards.
• The data is frequently revised and changes to definitions / benefits / DWP structure effect comparisons over time. It should therefore be treated with caution and must be seen as an indication of cost, rather than the actual cost.
• Youth Employability Coaches and other Jobcentre staff may also work from Youth Hubs which is not reflected in this data.