TALK O PERATIO NS
HOW COULD THE KICKSTART SCHEME
BENEFIT
A SMALL BUSINESS? Following on from my article about the Kickstart Scheme last month I thought that I would talk a bit more about the benefit of taking part in the scheme.
There’s been a lot of talk about the scheme and how it will help young people on universal credit but that’s all very well, small businesses that have been through a lot in the last 12 months. They need more reason than a warm fuzzy feeling from helping someone get work experience so they can go and work for someone else at the end of 6 months.
A quick reminder, what is the Kickstart Scheme? The Kickstart scheme is an idea that the UK government put forward in September 2020, the idea is to help 16 to 24 year olds, who are on universal credit and at risk of long-term employment, to gain relevant work experience and employability support
to help them get into long-term work as soon as possible. The scheme runs until December 2021 at present but it is expected that the scheme will be extended beyond that date due to the significant take up so far.
What can you get out of it? First of all, the obvious, each Kickstart placement lasts 6 months, and the DWP will fund the Kickstart employee’s salary for 25 hours per week at the appropriate minimum wage for their age. This means that you will get a part-time employee for 6 months at no cost to you! If you need some help in the office, the warehouse, doing your social media, making deliveries etc. but don’t have the money to employ someone, a Kickstarter could be the solution you need. At the end of the 6 months you an replace them with
