LABOUR demanded assurances today that the government’s new work scheme will actually produce meaningful job opportunities for unemployed young people.
The £2 billion Kickstart Scheme, which intends to fund “quality” six-month job placements for 16 to 24-year-olds claiming universal credit, launched on Wednesday.
The government has promised that funding for each job would cover the minimum wage for 25 hours per week, plus employers’ contributions for National Insurance and workplace pensions — though little other detail was available.
More than 6,000 people signed up to the scheme on its first day.
In July, more than a million young people — one in six — were neither in education nor work amid the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
At the same time there were almost 540,000 young people aged 24 and under claiming UC benefits — a rise of about 250,000 from when the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown started in March.
Labour said that the scale of the current jobs crisis means that more detail on how the scheme will work in practice is needed.
The party added that the scheme should deliver high-quality placements that involve training opportunities, support small businesses, help transition participants into long-lasting work and target young people who are most in need of help.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “Ministers must come to the House and confirm crucial details about how this scheme will actually work.
“The government has had two months to get this scheme up and running but it is clear they have made little progress.
“Young people and businesses can’t afford any more delay and incompetence from this government.”
Labour MP for Leeds East Richard Burgon tweeted today: “Young people desperately need government help to tackle the jobs crisis.
“But I fear the Kickstart Scheme will just mean very low-paid, temporary work.
“We need a public works programme including a Green New Deal to create high-skilled, high-pay jobs that give young people a real future.”
In the Commons, Labour and the SNP warned that the winding down of the job-retention scheme, known as the furlough scheme, could worsen unemployment.
