If you’re an employer looking to create jobs for young people, you can apply for funding under the Kickstart Scheme.
Recent changes have also been made to the guidance. These changes include advertising vacancies yourself to ‘Getting the young people into the jobs’, the remittance advice employers receive when they get the funding in the section ‘How you will get the funding’ and new instructions for adding more jobs to the grant agreement following launch of online route for employers.
The Kickstart Scheme funds the creation of new jobs for 16-24-year-olds on Universal Credit, at risk of long-term unemployment. Employers of all sizes can apply for funding which covers:
- 100% of the National Minimum Wage (or the National Living Wage depending on the age of the participant) for 25 hours per week for a total of 6 months.
- associated employer National Insurance contributions.
- minimum automatic enrolment pension contributions.
Employers can spread the job start dates up until 31 December 2021. You will get funding until 30 June 2022 if a young person starts their job on 31 December 2021.
Further funding is available to provide support so that young people on the scheme can get a job in the future.
You can apply for a Kickstart Scheme grant by either:
- applying online yourself
- applying through a Kickstart gateway who is already working with under the scheme.
If you already have a grant agreement and reference number, you can request to add more jobs to it. This is known as a ‘grant variation’.
See: Apply for a Kickstart Scheme grant – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)