Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many young people (1) have been, and (2) are currently, on the Kick Start scheme, broken down by age.

An initial assessment of a sample of the first 20,000 claimants who started a Kickstart job placement from the commencement of the scheme up to 6th May 2021 found the age range noted in the table below. The Department will be monitoring and evaluating the Kickstart scheme throughout its implementation, and will continue to evaluate the longer term outcomes for Kickstart participants after they have completed their six month job placements. This will include an examination of the demographic make-up of participants, including age.

The above table shows a small number of claimants were over 25 when they began their Kickstart job. This is as a result of some participants applying when aged 24 but turning 25 by the time their role began.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system which has been developed quickly. The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics, but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.