Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what consultation her Department has undertaken with employers on their experience of the Kickstart scheme to date.

The Department for Work and Pension’s continues to actively engage with employers around the Kickstart Scheme. We have established Kickstart District Account Managers to enable local engagement and we continue to work closely with employers and partners at a national level, to gather insight and feedback. In response to such feedback we recently removed the threshold for 30 jobs required for a direct application to the scheme, to allow employers a choice in how they engage with Kickstart. We will be monitoring and evaluating the Kickstart scheme throughout its implementation