Recommendation 14

The only formal requirements for young people going into Kickstart jobs are that they are aged 16 to 24, claiming Universal Credit, and seeking work.55 The Department issues its front-line work coaches with guidance about the types of people who might be most suitable for a Kickstart role, and then asks work coaches to use their judgement and discretion to refer young people for Kickstart job interviews. Young people should be referred when their work coach deems them ‘opportunity ready’, a good fit for an available Kickstart job, and when the young person agrees to the referral.56 The Department says that work coaches’ discretion is fundamental to the way that jobcentres operate, and that work coaches use their relationships with, and understanding of claimants to ensure that the young people going onto Kickstart jobs are those who would have found it difficult to find work otherwise.57 The Department told us that over 100,000 young people have been given opportunities, that it does not think they would otherwise have had, through Kickstart.58