A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) has highlighted concerns that the youth unemployment policies in the Kickstart Scheme are either ‘insufficient’ or ‘flawed’.

The Kickstart scheme was launched in summer 2020 as a key element of the government’s ‘plan for jobs', aiming to provide high quality six-month work placements for 16 to 24-year-olds receiving Universal Credit.

However, the NAO state that a lack of monitoring by the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) means there is ‘limited assurance’ that the scheme is having the intended benefits.

The budget for Kickstart was £1.9bn, with a cost to the taxpayer of around £7,000 per participant. That makes the initiative more than twice the cost of DWP's next most expensive support scheme.