Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made on the effect of the Kickstart scheme on employment levels.

The Department of Work and Pensions’ Kickstart Scheme is creating new, fully-funded, six- month jobs for young people at risk of long term unemployment. On Monday 8^th March the Secretary of State announced that we have approved almost 150,000 jobs through the scheme, of which over 4,000 young people have started in and over 30,000 are currently being advertised. Kickstart is designed to improve the chances that young people who participate will find sustained employment following their Kickstart job and as the economy starts to recover from the pandemic.