Guidance

Kickstart Scheme for gateways

Kickstart gateways are organisations that help employers get funding to create jobs for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit.

From:
Department for Work and Pensions
Published
13 September 2021
Last updated
19 August 2022 — See all updates

This guidance was withdrawn on

The Kickstart Scheme has closed.

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Kickstart gateway guidance

Kickstart Scheme applications have closed.

Check the deadlines for completing other Kickstart Scheme tasks.

  1. Remind yourself how the Kickstart Scheme works

  2. Check your responsibilities as a Kickstart gateway

  3. Submit the vacancies

  4. Manage the funding

If you’re an employer, check the guidance for employers.

How the scheme works

The Kickstart Scheme provides funding to create new jobs for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit who are at risk of long term unemployment.

Applications for the Kickstart Scheme closed at midday on 17 December 2021.

For employers and Kickstart gateways who have had a successful application, the funding covers:

Employers can spread the job start dates up until 31 March 2022. They’ll get funding for 6 months once the young person has started their job.

What you’ll get

You’ll get an initial payment of £1,860. This includes:

£360 per job for admin costs

Kickstart gateways will get £360 for each job to contribute towards admin costs. You may have to pay £60 of VAT depending on your individual circumstances. Find out if your organisation needs to register to pay VAT.

If you do not pay VAT

£60 from the £360 payment must be added to the £1,500 paid to the employer to provide the young person with employability support.

£1,500 per job for setup costs and employability support

This will be paid to you and you will need to pay this to the employer (as well as an extra £60 if you do not pay VAT).

This funding should be spent on setup costs and supporting the young person to develop their employability skills. Employers can choose to get someone else to do this for them, such as a Kickstart gateway or a service provider. If they choose to do this they will have to agree how to share the £1,500.

The employer should use this funding for:

  • training and employability support (provided by the employer, Kickstart gateway or another provider)
  • IT equipment and software
  • uniform or Personal Protective Equipment

Kickstart Scheme wages and costs are paid to you, but you will pass this on to the employer. This funding covers:

Employers can pay a higher wage and for more hours, but the funding will not cover this.

Responsibilities of a Kickstart Scheme gateway

As a Kickstart gateway, you act as an intermediary to help an employer manage their Kickstart Scheme grant. You may also offer employability support to the young person on the scheme.

Essential responsibilities

As a Kickstart gateway with an existing grant agreement with DWP, you need to:

  • ensure the employer has the capacity and capability to support the Kickstart Scheme workers
  • pay employers the Kickstart Scheme funding

Optional responsibilities

Employability support

You may choose to offer employability support to the young person on behalf of the employer.

This can include:

  • sharing your expertise with the employers to help them onboard and train young people employed through the scheme, for example supporting those from disadvantaged groups or working in certain sectors
  • providing employability support directly to young people employed through the scheme

You can offer employability support to an employer outside of your grant agreement. If you do this, the arrangement will be between you and the employer.

Gateway Plus

A Gateway Plus is a specific type of Kickstart gateway. They help smaller organisations, such as sole traders and partnerships with the Kickstart Scheme.

Alongside the essential responsibilities of a Kickstart gateway, they will also:

  • add the young person to their organisation’s payroll
  • pay the young person’s wages on the small employer’s behalf using the funding from DWP
  • provide the employability support on the small employer’s behalf

Organisations that are approved to act as a Gateway Plus are:

  • Adecco Working Ventures in Partnership with the Federation of Small Businesses
  • REED
  • Manpower Group
  • The Wirral Chamber of Commerce

Job criteria

The jobs created with Kickstart Scheme funding must be new jobs. You need to check all of this with the employers you represent.

The jobs must not:

  • replace existing or planned vacancies
  • cause existing employees, apprentices or contractors to lose work or reduce their working hours

The jobs must:

Each job needs to help the young person become more employable. The Kickstart gateway needs to agree with the employer how this is done.

This employability support could include:

  • looking for long-term work, including career advice and setting goals
  • support with CV and interview preparations
  • developing their skills in the workplace

The young person may be able to move to another employment scheme when they’ve finished their 6-month Kickstart Scheme job.

How to get the young people into the jobs

After the jobs are added to the grant agreement:

  1. You should have submitted the details of the vacancies using the job placement template by 11.59pm on 31 January 2022

  2. Work coaches at Jobcentre Plus referred young people to the vacancies (‘referrals’) until 1 March 2022. A referral is made when we recommend a job to a candidate. This did not guarantee the candidate would put in an application.

  3. You or the employer (depending on your agreement with them) will interview suitable candidates who have applied.

  4. The young person must have started the job on or before 31 March 2022.

  5. You must have told us by 11:59pm on 30 November 2022 that the young person has started so we can process the funding.

You or the employer can advertise vacancies, but all jobs must receive an introduction through a DWP work coach to receive full funding.

If a young person leaves the job early

You must email DWP as soon as possible if the young person:

  • leaves their job before the end of the 6-month period
  • needs to temporarily leave their job (for example for special leave or coronavirus-related restrictions)

The email address is the same one you use to tell DWP about the young person’s start date. You’ll be told how to do this in the ‘referral’ email you get when a work coach refers a young person to a job vacancy.

If they leave their job early, DWP will pay the grant until the end of the month that they stopped working.

DWP may be able to extend the funding period if the young person has to temporarily stop working.

Manage the Kickstart Scheme funding

DWP will send the funding to you as the Kickstart gateway. You will be responsible for sending the funding to the employer within 5 working days.

How the funding is calculated for each young person

The calculation is:

  • 25 hours each week at National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage (depending on their age at the end of the job*) multiplied by 26 weeks
  • National Insurance and workplace pension contributions are added to this amount
  • the £1,500 funding for setup costs is then added to this amount

*For example, if a young person starts the job aged 17 and turns 18 before the end of the 26 weeks, the funding will cover National Minimum Wage for 18 year olds from the first day of their job.

£1,860 per job

You must inform DWP by 11:59pm on 30 November 2022 that the young person has started the job. The £1,500 setup costs and £360 admin costs funding will then be paid. You’ll be told how to do this in the email you receive when a work coach refers a young person to a vacancy.

If the Kickstart gateway or another provider does some of the job setup and employability support, the employer can use the £1,500 funding to cover this.

Every 30 days we use information from HMRC to check that the young person is being paid through Pay As You Earn (PAYE).

We’ll then send the funding for the wages and related costs to cover the last 30 days of employment.

The employer can pay a higher wage and for more hours but the funding will not cover this.

Each time you’ll receive a remittance advice explaining what you’ve got. You’ll be able to identify the young person in the remittance advice by their ‘Introduction ID’. We’ll send the Introduction ID in an email when the young person is referred by a work coach to the job.

Funding schedule

The schedule shows when the funding will be sent to you. You then need to send it to the employer within 5 working days.

Funding type When we usually process the funding When you’ll usually receive the funding
Setup costs After you or the employer has told DWP the young person has started (do this by 11:59pm on 30 November 2022) Up to 11 working days after it’s been processed
First wage payment 6 weeks after the start date Up to 11 working days after it’s been processed
All other wage payments 30 days after the previous wage payment Up to 11 working days after it’s been processed

The last day for processing payments is 30 November 2022.

Other employment schemes

Kickstart Scheme is part of the government’s Plan for Jobs. Other employment schemes in this include:

Apprenticeships

You may be able to get funding for any apprentices you employ in England. Find out more about apprenticeships.

Sector-based Work Academy Programme (SWAP)

Jobcentre Plus can support you to create a skilled workforce for your business by offering unemployed people sector-based work academies in England and Scotland.

Traineeships

Employers in England can also help young people by setting up a traineeship. Funding is available for this scheme.

Disability Confident

The Disability Confident scheme provides employers with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to make the most of the talents disabled people can bring to the workplace.

Employment and recruitment support

Employ someone step by step
Advertise a job
Recruitment advice and support

Updates to this page

Published 13 September 2021
Last updated 19 August 2022 + show all updates

  1. The deadline for telling DWP that a young person has started their job is 30 November 2022.

  2. Updated page because the deadline for telling us that the young person has started their job has now passed.

  3. Updated page as the deadline for young people starting in the job has now passed.

  4. Updated page to say the deadline for referring young people into jobs has now passed.

  5. Updated page as the deadline for submitting vacancies has now passed.

  6. Updated page as the deadline for grant agreements to be signed and returned has now passed.

  7. Updated page to say applications for Kickstart Scheme funding closed at midday on 17 December 2021 and removed information about adding more jobs or employers to the grant agreement.

  8. Added deadlines for completing Kickstart Scheme tasks.

  9. Added information about Kickstart Scheme applications closing on 17 December 2021 and that job start dates have been extended to 31 March 2022.

  10. First published.

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