Extracts from Parliamentary proceedings: Kickstart - Jan 25
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Extracts from DWP questions Kickstart Scheme Chris Clarkson
(Heywood and Middleton) (Con) What steps she plans to take to
increase the participation of young people in the Kickstart scheme
as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased. The Secretary of State
for Work and Pensions (Dr Thérèse Coffey) Kickstart has got off to
a flying start and I am delighted to inform the House that to date
120,000 Kickstart jobs have been approved and 2,000 young people
have already started. Around 10,000...Request free trial
Extracts from DWP
questions
Kickstart Scheme Chris Clarkson (Heywood and Middleton) (Con) What steps she plans to take to increase the participation of young people in the Kickstart scheme as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Dr Thérèse Coffey) Kickstart has got off to a flying start and I am delighted to inform the House that to date 120,000 Kickstart jobs have been approved and 2,000 young people have already started. Around 10,000 jobs are available to young people now and I am expecting a further 33,000 or so to be placed fairly soon while we work with employers to finalise the detail of the job offer. We recognise that young people have been greatly impacted by the pandemic, which is why Kickstart is such a pivotal part of our plan for jobs to help them secure a stable footing on the career ladder. Chris Clarkson Kickstart is a fantastic programme that has created 120,000 opportunities that will benefit young people in Heywood and Middleton and around the country, but of course the core jobcentre offering will be incredibly important as we move to recovery. What measures are being taken to ensure that that is available to people of all ages around the country? Dr Coffey My hon. Friend is right. While Kickstart is the flagship of our plan for jobs, we are well on track to recruit the extra 13,500 work coaches. Throughout the pandemic and across the country, work coaches have continued to provide support directly and digitally. Helping people to get ready to get back into work is a top priority and that is why other parts of the plan for jobs, including stepping up the number of places on sector-based work academy programmes, boosting job entry targeted support and launching job funding support nationally this month, are how we are helping everybody to try to get back into work. Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op) Today, the DWP announced that more than 120,000 Kickstart jobs had been created, but the Secretary of State has said that 10,000 placements are available now, and the Financial Times has reported that it is because of the Secretary of State’s delays that the other 33,000 have not yet come on stream. How on earth can it be that fewer than 2,000 young people have started placements to date? This scheme was announced six months ago and over half a million young people are out of work. Is it not the Secretary of State who needs to move up a gear so that we can secure our economy and get our young people into the jobs that they need? Dr Coffey The hon. Lady is right to ask why only 2,000 people have started. We have had a record number of applications and we have actually created more job placements than the future jobs fund ever achieved. We are trying to turn that into job starts. There are certain things going on where we are trying to roll out those jobs around the country, but I can assure her that this pipeline of jobs, which will take us right through to the end of the year as we are taking on more, is there to try to ensure that we find people the right sort of kickstarter role. We are also making sure that, as well as having covid-secure arrangements, the training wraparound support is high-quality. Covid-19: Welfare Support Sir David Amess (Southend West) (Con) What steps her Department is taking to help ensure that people with disabilities and health conditions can safely access welfare support during the covid-19 outbreak. The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work (Justin Tomlinson) Work coaches are empowered to support claimants through the best and most appropriate channels, whether online, by phone or in person, with jobcentres remaining open to those who need extra support and are unable to interact with us on the phone or digitally. Sir David Amess [V] A number of my constituents in Southend West who suffer from mental or physical disabilities do not have access to computers or the internet. Many of them rely on in-person support in normal times, through places such as the citizens advice bureau or the wonderful Kings Money Advice Centre. With many in these vulnerable groups unfortunately now shielding, what assurances can my hon. Friend give me that support is being made accessible to those without online access? Justin Tomlinson My hon. Friend is a strong advocate for supporting his most vulnerable claimants and his local advocacy groups. As I have set out, we will look at the most appropriate way to communicate with claimants, including by phone or through advocates, where they do not have access to the internet. Kickstart Scheme Katherine Fletcher (South Ribble) (Con) What steps her Department is taking to enable more small business to participate in the Kickstart scheme. Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab) What steps her Department is taking to encourage employers to participate in the Kickstart scheme. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mims Davies) We continue to engage with employers of all sizes to create high-quality placements for our young people to get their start on the employment ladder, and to make it even simpler, from 3 February we will remove the 30-job minimum for job applications, giving new applicants the choice to apply directly or via one of over 600 excellent approved Kickstart gateways. Katherine Fletcher [V] As you well know, Mr Speaker, South Ribble has many brilliant small businesses that are keen to provide a Kickstart opportunity for a young person. For example, Mark Wright Landscapes got in touch saying that it was worried that it was too small to participate. In that instance, I was able to direct them to the great North and Western Lancashire chamber of commerce, which acts as a gateway. Will my hon. Friend join me in thanking that small business and encouraging others in Lancashire and beyond to create a job and give an opportunity through Kickstart to as many young people as possible? Mims Davies I would very much like to thank my hon. Friend for raising the opportunities for smaller businesses, and the great team at the North and Western Lancashire chamber of commerce for their hard work and the services they provide as a gateway organisation. This is helping many sole traders and employers in her constituency to support our young people to take up these Kickstart roles, ensuring that young people have that vital wraparound support, getting them on to the career ladder and, above all, grasping future work opportunities. Rushanara Ali [V] With youth unemployment set to reach 1 million and 600,000 already unemployed, can the Minister provide some updates on how her Department will meet the 250,000 Kickstart programme target that it stated it would meet? The numbers that the Secretary of State has set out today are worryingly low. Will she also consider removing the six-month requirement, where a young person has to be unemployed for six months before they qualify for the Kickstart programme? Mims Davies The young person needs to be on universal credit and working with our excellent work coaches. In respect of Hoxton and Poplar, in the hon. Lady’s constituency, we are recruiting 27 new work coaches in Hoxton and 67 in Poplar. Since the end of September, we have been working with the new Tower Hamlets youth hub, with local employers and gateways bringing opportunities. I encourage the hon. Lady to visit her local jobcentre to see what has happened there in the past year, because I do not believe she has visited and think that would put her mind at rest. Covid-19: Youth Employment Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con) What steps her Department is taking to help increase levels of employment among young people (a) during and (b) after the covid-19 outbreak. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mims Davies) This Conservative Government and I, as the employment Minister, are committed to providing support to help our young people to move into work and avoid the long-term scarring effects of unemployment, both during the pandemic and as we recover from its impact. Our plan for jobs includes an expanded DWP youth offer, Kickstart and more than 100 new youth hubs to assist young people to move into meaningful, sustained employment. Alec Shelbrooke [V] Small and medium-sized enterprises in my constituency have raised concerns about the time it takes to apply for the Kickstart scheme. What action is the Department taking to ensure that applications are processed as quickly as possible? Mims Davies The Department worked at pace to launch the Kickstart scheme in September, with the first applications open in November. Our aim is to take forward applications within one month, but it can take longer if we require additional information. We expect the situation to improve as we adopt processes and embed learnings from the thousands of employers and hundreds of gateways that have joined the scheme early on. My hon. Friend will be pleased to hear that the application from Fotofabric Ltd in his constituency has now been approved. Covid-19: Careers Advice Rob Roberts (Delyn) (Con) What steps her Department is taking to help people whose sectors have been particularly affected by the covid-19 outbreak to switch careers. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mims Davies) Our plan for jobs is providing a range of vital, tailored employment support for all jobseekers who are looking to move sector; targeting support for those impacted by the pandemic; and linking into local recovery plans. The plan includes DWP’s job finding support, or JFS; sector-based work academy programmes, or SWAPs; job entry targeted support, or JETS; and our new restart programme. It will also utilise the forthcoming UK shared prosperity fund. Rob Roberts [V] Back in 2013, my constituency of Delyn had an unemployment rate of 5.2%; thanks to successful aspirational Conservative policies, this was down to just 3% before the pandemic took hold, but now sits at around 6%. With some sectors—particularly tourism and hospitality—more severely impacted than others, will my hon. Friend confirm that, despite many things being in the hands of a Welsh Government who, I hope, are in their final months in power, the UK Government will continue to provide support and generate opportunities for my constituents to get back into work as soon as possible? Mims Davies I am happy to confirm that DWP will continue to work hard to support people like my hon. Friend’s constituents. I know that the staff in his three local jobcentres are already delivering training, mentoring circles and Kickstart prep courses with partners such as Google, Amazon and the Prince’s Trust, as well as working to develop new resources to help to support local jobseekers. Extracts from Commons debate on Employment Rights: Government Plans Antony Higginbotham (Burnley) (Con): Today, we have seen the Labour party do its typical thing for Opposition day debates—roll out its spin machine, this time to cling on to EU regulations by the back door, rehashing lines from the remain campaign—but we can all see through it. My constituents do not want to hold on to EU rules and regulations. What they want is a high-wage, high-skill, high-standard economy: high wages by introducing a new immigration system that ends the practice of people being brought into the UK to undercut our workforce; high skills by using schemes such as Kickstart the lifetime skills guarantee and the new skills for jobs White Paper; and high standards, reflecting the clear commitment from the new Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy who said at the Dispatch Box that there will be “no changes” to workers’ rights in the UK. Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con) [V]: The fourth missing ingredient was the most important issue of all: jobs and job creation in a pandemic and an economic crisis. Today, we know that employers have signed up to offer 120,000 six-month Kickstart work placements as soon as it is possible for them to start. Government Departments, such as the Department for International Trade, are on the case too. In a few days, I will host a trade export event in Gloucester to help businesses find new markets, which I hope will lead to new jobs. It is businesses that drive new jobs, as the Secretary of State knows. That is why he is supporting my efforts on promoting more marine energy around our coasts, bringing green energy and sustainable jobs. That is what we need: skills and jobs. Suzanne Webb (Stourbridge) (Con) [V]:...There was no need for a debate on this issue today. Debates such as these prey on people’s lives for the sole purpose of a social media clip for a political soundbite. We should all be working together and debating together on our plan for jobs and the road to recovery, spreading the good news about the fantastic Kickstart scheme getting young people into work, keeping people in jobs, and giving people the confidence that while, yes, this pandemic has ruthlessly undermined both our national and personal economies, there is a route out of it. To read the whole debate, CLICK HERE Extract from Lords debate on Tackling Intergenerational Unfairness (Select Committee Report) Lord Price (Con) [V]:...Jobs in hospitality and retail have been decimated—sadly, we have seen more evidence of that again today—and these are often places where the young start their careers. As the report points out, there is also a need for more structured mid-career training to help employees adapt to the new world, and that is true now more than ever. And, with unemployment predicted to rise rapidly, there is a need to get the young who are leaving school and university into work, as well as on in work. For example, schemes such as Kickstart should be welcomed, but they need to be more available to SMEs if they are to make a substantive impact... Baroness Penn (Con):...Young people are at particular risk of unemployment due to the economic consequences of the pandemic. That is why the Government have put such an emphasis on employment support, a key part of which is the £2 billion Kickstart scheme that has created over 100,000 job opportunities so far for young people who are unemployed. Finally, last November’s spending review provided £3.6 billion of additional funding for the Department for Work and Pensions to deliver labour market support... To read the whole debate, CLICK HERE |