Guidance

Youth Jobs Grant: Grant guidance

Updated 30 June 2026

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

1. Introduction  

The Youth Jobs Grant launched on 30 June 2026 across Great Britain. This Scheme supports employers by offering a grant of £3,000 to an eligible employer that hires an eligible young person for a minimum employment period of 16 weeks. You can apply for the Scheme via the UK Government’s Find a Grant service at Youth Jobs Grant - Find a Grant.

We have designed the Scheme to be open and accessible, ensuring eligible employers and young people can easily take part in the Scheme and benefit from the grant.

This document sets out important information to support participating employers in applying to the Scheme and meeting the conditions of the grant. It should be read in conjunction with the Scheme Terms & Conditions available at Youth Jobs Grant. In the event of any conflict between these documents, the terms of the Terms and Conditions will prevail. This includes all relevant definitions as presented in the Scheme Terms and Conditions.

Any personal data of your employees, company representatives or others provided by you shall be used in accordance with the privacy statement located at Privacy Policy - Find a grant and Privacy Notice for Spotlight Counter Fraud Checks - GOV.UK. 

DWP reserves the right to make changes to the Scheme for new vacancies where necessary to ensure it remains compliant, deliverable and protects public funds. Where this is the case, grants will be subject to the Scheme Terms & Conditions as of the date vacancies are submitted and will remain subject to those conditions for the duration of respective participating young person’s employment. 

Changes to the Scheme Terms and Conditions must be accepted through the vacancy forms and will apply to new vacancies. The latest Terms and Conditions version will always be available at Youth Jobs Grant as well as the dates on which it is applicable.  

The Government reserves the right to end or change this Scheme. If the Scheme ends or the grant amount changes, the Government will aim to provide 4 weeks’ notice of the change at Youth Jobs Grant. 

2. Youth Jobs Grant 

2.1 Scheme overview 

The Scheme is designed to support employers to recruit young people, which, along with the wider Youth Guarantee, addresses high levels of youth unemployment and inactivity.   The Youth Jobs Grant is a separate Scheme to the Jobs Guarantee. While these both come under the Government’s Youth Guarantee, they have different objectives and serve different cohorts of young people. Information on the Youth Guarantee and Jobs Guarantee is available at: Build Your Future Workforce. 

The Scheme aims to support up to 60,000 job opportunities over 3 years, approximately 20,000 per year for this financial year (FY2026/2027) and the following 2 financial years, closing to new vacancies in October 2028. 

Detailed eligibility is set out below, but the Scheme is open to employers of all sizes and sectors with employers across GB who recruit an eligible young person: 

• Between 18–24 

• Out of work and on Universal Credit for 6 months and not eligible for the Jobs Guarantee (which is normally accessed from 18 months)

This grant will be staged with £1,800 paid after 6 weeks and £1,200 after 18 weeks after earnings are verified through HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Real Time Information (RTI).

2.2 Aims and objectives of the Scheme 

The objectives of the Youth Jobs Grant are to provide: 

• Eligible employers with financial support to recruit eligible young people into suitable jobs

• Eligible young people with the opportunity to develop the skills and experience they need to move towards sustained employment

2.3 Scheme applications and journey 

To apply for the Youth Jobs Grant, an employer should access Youth Jobs Grant - Find a Grant. You must be registered with GOV.UK One Login to use this service which you can register for as part of your application. 

There are 3 key stages to the Scheme: 

Employer Registration and due diligence  

The initial application to the Scheme is expected to take around 20 minutes to complete. This asks you to provide information needed to assess your eligibility for the Scheme. See Annex A of this document for the application form contents and information on how to fill this out.  

On applying to join the Scheme you will be asked to: 

• Confirm the accuracy of the information you submit

• Accept a declaration stating that you agree the Scheme Terms and Conditions and a number of other key criteria

On submitting each vacancy to the Scheme you will, through the vacancy submission forms, be confirming the information remains accurate and confirm your acceptance of the Scheme Terms and Conditions which will include any variations that have taken place since applying to be an employer on the Scheme.  

These forms will also set out if there are changes to Scheme Terms and Conditions which need to be accepted by your organisation before DWP accepts additional vacancies. Always refer to the Youth Jobs Grant for the latest information and version of the Terms and Conditions.

If there is an issue with your application form, we will contact you by email or phone as supplied in your application. DWP will then conduct Due Diligence on your application, we aim to confirm the result of your application by email within 10 working days. See section 3.1 for details on employer due diligence checks. This stage will only have to be completed once; you will not have to do this again if you submit further vacancies in the future.  

This confirmation will include an employer unique reference number which you should include in any communication with us. Once you have confirmation you meet the criteria for the Youth Jobs Grant you can submit vacancies via email at srt.youthjobsgrantteam@DWP.GOV.UK.

If we confirm you do not meet the criteria or have failed due diligence, we will email you setting out why and next steps. This will, where appropriate, include the opportunity to appeal the decision, see 5.4 appeals. 

Vacancies 

See section 3.2 details what type of vacancies will be suitable.  

There is a form available at Youth Jobs Grant, which allows the submission of a single or multiple vacancies, it contains a link to a form to confirms your acceptance of the latest version of the Terms and Conditions which will apply to these vacancies.  

We will then check these vacancies meet the Scheme’s eligibility and suitability criteria and aim to confirm if we are accepting all the submitted vacancies within 5 working days. If there is an issue we will contact you to discuss by email or phone.  

At this point we will provide you with a unique vacancy number for your vacancies. Please use this when you communicate with us on specific vacancies. 

Accepted vacancies will then be made available through DWP systems for Work Coaches to identify and refer suitable candidates to your vacancy where you can conduct your preferred recruitment approach (CV, interview, etc). 

Multiple and further vacancies can be submitted via the same route, although see section 3.2 for limits on this. 

Starts and Payment  

Once you have selected a candidate you must inform DWP by emailing a pre-start form to srt.youthjobsgrantteam@DWP.GOV.UK before the young person starts so DWP can confirm their identity and update internal records. You should always include your employer reference number and your vacancy reference number, as this will help us identify you correctly. 

We will then use HMRC Real Time Information feed to validate the earnings and, if a young person has had sufficient earnings, make the first payment after approximately 6 weeks and the second payment after approximately 18 weeks. See the Grant Terms and Conditions for precise details. 

There is no need to inform us of a young person’s continued employment, however if they do not start, or leave shortly after starting, we ask that you inform DWP by submitting the appropriate form at srt.youthjobsgrantteam@DWP.GOV.UK so we can update our records. 

Both of these forms are available at Youth Jobs Grant.

Please note acceptance onto the Scheme, acceptance of a submitted vacancy and/or employment of an eligible young person does not guarantee payment unless criteria are met. See the Scheme Terms & Conditions for further details.  

General Information 

If you have any queries about the Scheme or progress of your grant application, please contact the Employer Services Line (ESL) on 0800 169 0178 or using the online enquiry form ESL Contact Form. We will aim to respond as quickly as possible.  

The Scheme does not include a tailored wraparound support offer for either the employer or the participating young person, beyond the ‘Business as Usual’ support offered to Universal Credit claimants. 

If an employer has concerns about any young person participating in the Scheme and under their employment, they should contact the Employer Services Line on 0800 169 0178 or using the online enquiry form ESL Contact Form in the first instance.

3. Employer and Vacancy Process  

3.1  Eligible Employers 

We have designed this Scheme to minimise the administrative burden and bureaucracy. However, the Department must also ensure that we protect the Government from legal, financial and reputational damage when administering this Scheme. We have therefore put in place a range of controls. 

We will undertake due diligence on employers using Spotlight, the Cabinet Office automated due-diligence and risk-assessment platform system, as well as data from HMRC.  

Eligibility and suitability criteria are set out in detail in the Scheme Terms & Conditions at Youth Jobs Grant. These are binding and you must comply with these conditions, if the Department believes that an employer has not met or maintained eligibility or suitability requirements, this will have an impact on your grant applications and/or payment and could lead to the grant being recovered or other action being taken.

We reserve the right to use discretion if there is uncertainty considering an employer’s compliance with eligibility and criteria. 

Employers must: 

• Be an organisation of any size (including sole traders intending to hire), with operations in Great Britain

• Have been trading for the 6 months prior to accepting the Terms and Conditions and expect to continue trading for at least the duration of the vacancy

• Not be a Central Government Department, their Executive Agencies or Non-Departmental Public Bodies. Local Authorities and other non‑central public sector organisations are eligible

• Be registered with HMRC, with a Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) or Corporation Tax Unique Registration number (CTUTR)  

• Have an active Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Scheme

• Have a Data Universal Numbering System (D-U-N-S) Number. The DWP payment system uses this number to identify employers before payment can be made: 

  • if your organisation is registered at Companies House you should already have a D-U-N-S Number assigned

  • if your organisation is a charity you will still need a D-U-N-S Number to receive payment 

  • to obtain a D-U-N-S Number contact D-U-N-S Number Questions: Start Here - Dun & Bradstreet. There is no cost for this service

Employers will also be asked to provide a Companies House Registration Number (CHRN) to facilitate due diligence.

3.2  Eligible job vacancies 

Vacancies should be registered with the Scheme via the vacancy form and start form available at Youth Jobs Grant. Employers can submit all of their vacancies at once, although see the section on Maximum number of Vacancies below.

Vacancies must: 

• Offer genuine, paid work for at least 25 hours per week  

• Last at least the minimum term of 16 weeks 

• Pay at least the applicable National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage 

• Be comparable to roles the employer offers outside the Scheme  

• Not displace existing employees, workers, apprentices or contractors 

• Not be made up of more than 50% online training 

Vacancies must also meet the Terms and Conditions of Find a Job, available at Find a job - Employers or as a PDF at Youth Jobs Grant.

Any previous Funded Employment will also be checked for exploitative practices that breached the Terms and Conditions. 

Once you submit vacancies DWP will conduct due diligence checks on the vacancy to ensure it aligns with the above requirements. These checks will take a maximum of 5 working days. This may increase if an employer submits a substantial volume of different vacancies at once.

If the vacancy does not meet eligibility requirements, employers will be notified via email with information on how to appeal, see section 5.4. DWP reserves the right to reject vacancies to ensure the Scheme remains within budget and is delivered fairly. 

Once a vacancy has passed due diligence checks and has been accepted, we will notify the respective employer by email. The vacancy will be live within 2 working days. Within these 2 working days, if necessary, the Department’s Recruitment Consultants will work with the employer to refine the vacancy. This process may take longer if you submit multiple vacancies.  

Please note that the Scheme’s grant may not be claimed for any employee that does not meet the eligibility criteria, for any employee employed directly outside of the Scheme, or they were recruited before the respective job being accepted on to the Scheme. 

Maximum number of vacancies: 

• Where you employ 0-3 employees a maximum of 1 Funded Employee at any time 

• Where you employ 4-9 employees a maximum of 2 Funded Employees at any time 

• Where you employ 10 or more employees no more than a number being equal to 20% of the total number of employees as Funded Employees 

• DWP requires employers to declare that its group of companies (or equivalent structure) will not receive more than £25,000,000 across the support offered through Youth Jobs Grant and Jobs Guarantee with calculations based on subsidy guidance - for more information please see the terms and conditions and associated HM Government guidance at UK subsidy control regime: statutory guidance - GOV.UK  

3.3  Job Matching and Applications 

Once live eligible vacancies will be passed to Department for Work and Pensions Work Coaches and operational colleagues to match the vacancy to eligible and suitable young people. Work Coaches will consider the participating young person’s work readiness, specific employment aspirations and circumstances (e.g. location, travel factors). 

DWP will work towards referring a number of young people to each vacancy. They will then go through the employer’s application process. This application process is at the employer’s discretion and could include a CV, Personal Statement and/or direct interviews. 

Before the young person starts employment, employers must notify the Department of the successful candidate and when the young person will start their employment by emailing the pre-start form available at Youth Jobs Grant to this email address srt.youthjobsgrantteam@DWP.GOV.UK.

If a vacancy is unfilled within 8 weeks, we will email you to discuss next steps.  

3.4  Post-Scheme 

The Scheme’s aspiration is for employers to take on eligible young people and sustain their employment beyond the minimum term of 16 weeks. The minimum term is required to be met as a condition of the grant payment, and if employment sustains beyond 16 weeks it is not subject to any further grant funding. 

Where the Department believes that any Funded Employer is recruiting successive Funded Employees into the same Vacancy, we reserve the right to refuse to accept the same Vacancy submitted repeatedly.

4. Grant funding  

4.1  Summary of grant funding approach 

All conditions and additional considerations as set out in the Terms and Conditions must be met for the grant payments to be released and the Department reserves the right to withhold or reclaim grant payments where it is found that employers have not acted in compliance with the Scheme conditions. 

4.2  Administration of Grant Funding 

The Scheme will be administered centrally by the Department for Work and Pensions.  

In the first instance, where you have queries regarding the Scheme employers should contact the Employer Services Line on 0800 169 0178 or using the online enquiry form. For due diligence, vacancy, or for payment appeals only the contact is by email srt.yjgappeals@dwp.gov.uk. 

A Young Person with queries regarding the Scheme should contact their Work Coach or local jobcentre, in line with the conditions of their Universal Credit claim. 

Throughout the employer’s participation in the Scheme, they will be required to engage with a range of grant and Scheme administration process. The participating employer should aim to ensure they do so promptly to avoid any negative impacts on their applications or grant payments. 

4.3 Payment Process 

Grant payments will only be released if grant conditions are met, including the compliance with checking a young person’s employment via Real Time Information feed from HMRC which shares up to date earnings information with the Department for Work and Pensions.  

Please refer to the Terms and Conditions for the specific payment details, but in brief: 

• The first payment of £1,800 will be made if a young person has worked at least 50 hours when DWP checks RTI at week 6  

• If the threshold has not been met, DWP will repeat the verification 10 weeks following the start date and check for at least 100 hours of employment 

• If at week 10 from the Start Date there are insufficient earnings, we will not make this or the second payment for the specific young person, this will be confirmed by email 

• The second payment of £1,200 will be made if a young person has worked at least 300 hours when DWP checks RTI at week 18  

• If the required data has not yet been logged onto RTI, DWP will repeat the verification 22 weeks following the start date 

• If at 22 weeks from the Start Date there are insufficient earnings, we will not make a payment, this will be confirmed by email 

We aim to release payment no more than 10 days after DWP has verified all conditions have been met. DWP will confirm Remittance by email once the payment is made.  

DWP may contact you before payment is released to verify bank details.  

If an employer thinks there is an error, they should respond to the email setting out why, however the employer is responsible for the young person’s payment data supplied to HMRC for loading onto RTI, we will not accept payslips in any format or other evidence.  

This Scheme will not be subject to detailed reconciliation of costs and grant payments, however we will carry out the above described RTI checks to ensure that employment and pay criteria have been met to support release of the grant payment.

While the grant payment is designed to be used flexibly by the employer, the Youth Jobs Grant is payable in respect of reimbursement of Eligible Employment Costs only. You must not claim a Youth Jobs Grant for costs already funded by DWP or any other Crown Body or Local Government Body.

5. Compliance 

5.1  Legal Compliance 

Employers are required to ensure compliance with all relevant legislation. Your attention is drawn to the following:  

• Employment Rights Act 1996 and 2025  

• Working Time Regulations 1998  

• National Minimum Wage Act 1998  

• Health and Safety at Work etc… Act 1974  

• UK General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018  

• Equality Act 2010  

• Modern Slavery Act 2015  

Safeguarding 

All relevant safeguarding legislation must be adhered to. We particularly draw Your attention to child protection legislation and the Modern Slavery Act 2015. You must have sufficient policies and/or processes in place in order to foster safeguarding. 

Health and Safety 

You must ensure a safe environment for any Funded Employee and all employees both on and off-site, and for meeting all regulatory and legislative health and safety requirements. 

Health and safety risk assessments should be undertaken where appropriate to ensure compliance with all health and safety obligations.  

Health and safety risk assessments must have regard to relevant equality legislation. Where a health and safety assessment may lead to discrimination, that is one person is treated less favourably than others in respect of a characteristic protected in legislation (including, but not limited to, disability, pregnancy, maternity or sex (including breastfeeding)), it must be possible to demonstrate that this is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. 

We reserve the right to require you to undertake a safety risk assessment in individual cases where health and safety may be an issue, and to monitor and audit the actual arrangements made. In the event of a serious incident (for example, death) we require that you inform us for risk purposes. 

Equality, diversity and inclusion 

You are expected to ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion is considered and supported at all stages throughout the performance of the Scheme. 

You must ensure that any training and employment is compliant with the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 in England, Wales and Scotland. 

You are required to ensure all staff including without limitation the young person receives suitable training, information and support to ensure compliance with your obligations under all equality legislation.

Bullying and harassment 

You must have clear, well-publicised policies, processes and training in place. To manage the risks associated with our funding, organisations must inform Us of any upheld allegations of sexual exploitation, abuse, bullying, psychological abuse, physical violence and harassment including in respect of any of the protected characteristics as defined by the Equality Act 2010, against staff or associated personnel directly engaged with the Funded Employer. 

5.2  Fraud Prevention 

DWP reserves the right to take whatever action it deems appropriate if there is any evidence or suspicion of:  

• Fraudulent activity

• Misuse of government funding by any party

Grant applicants or Funded Employers who become aware of any activity which is or may be fraudulent or which does not comply with the grant Scheme requirements must contact srt.yjgappeals@dwp.gov.uk.  

You must provide details of any allegations, proven or not, of cases of fraud or attempted fraud and any other complaint or investigation into dishonesty, fraudulent activities or business misconduct, by any regulatory body or the police into your activities or those of your staff as soon as this becomes known to you.  

If the Department deems that fraudulent activity has occurred, we will refer the case to the Department’s central Fraud & Error team to take forward action under statutory obligations. 

5.3  Audit 

By applying for or claiming a grant under the Youth Jobs Grant Scheme  you agree to  facilitate in audits as set out in the Scheme Terms and Conditions by DWP and/or a nominated third-party organisations.

Audits may take place before or after a claim is paid and you must retain all Youth Jobs Grant records for 7 years once the employee is no longer covered by the Scheme. 

5.4  Appeals 

If you or your vacancy are rejected from the Scheme and you believe that this is due to misapplication of these criteria or that information has not been provided in support of the application then the decision can be appealed by contacting: srt.yjgappeals@dwp.gov.uk.

DWP will consider all information submitted but this does not fetter the discretion of DWP to take decisions to implement the scheme. 

Employer due diligence 

Our decision will set out which part (or parts) of the eligibility your organisation has failed, unless you are failed on one of the HMRC checks. Your appeal should confirm why you think your organisation is eligible and why the data within Spotlight is incorrect or how the information you submitted was incorrect and provide the correct information.  

Your submission will be reviewed by a decision-making panel. They will decide whether the organisation is eligible and if so, confirm this by email, if not they will confirm your ineligibility.  

This decision is final, although you are welcome to apply again if your organisation subsequently becomes eligible.

If you fail on one of the HMRC checks then the email will set out your options however we will require you to go back through HMRC due diligence once the issue is resolved. If your organisation fails a second time there is no further right of appeal. 

Vacancy due diligence 

Our decision will set out which part of the vacancy eligibility the vacancy has failed.  

Your appeal should confirm either: 

a) what part of the submission you will change to make it eligible or  

b) why we (DWP) have incorrectly applied the eligibility criteria 

Your submission will be reviewed by a decision-making panel. They will decide whether the vacancy is eligible and if so, confirm this by email, if not they will confirm your ineligibility.  

This decision is final, although you are welcome to submit further vacancies which meet the eligibility criteria.

6. Evaluation 

The Scheme is a publicly funded programme and therefore should deliver value for money for the taxpayer. To provide accountability for the expenditure committed to on this scheme, DWP will carry out a full evaluation of the Youth Jobs Grant to identify and establish the scale of its impacts, delivery outputs and value-for-money.

DWP may commission elements of this evaluation to a third party (research contractor), if so, we will confirm at a future date the research provider we have partnered with.  

Employers will be asked to support this process evaluation by actively participating and enabling research, surveys and evaluation.  

In addition to the data requirements set out in this and other Scheme documents, employers and young people participating in the Scheme may be asked for qualitative feedback, including respective participants experience of the Scheme. 

7. Data 

The Department for Work and Pensions and participating employers must comply with all applicable data protection laws with regards to data gathered for the administration, monitoring and evaluation of this Scheme and its grant payments. 

Any personal data (of your employees, company representatives or otherwise) provided by you shall be used in accordance with the Find a Grant and Spotlight privacy statements located at Find a Grant and Spotlight. 

You must also comply with any additional data protection procedures notified by us and ensure that: 

1. You have provided participating employees, company representatives or other relevant persons with our privacy statement.

2. All fair processing notices have been given and/or, as applicable, consents are obtained to enable us to process the relevant data for the purpose of the Scheme.

We may also require you to comply with additional data provisions if we reasonably determine these to be necessary to enable the Department and participating employers to comply with respective obligations under data protection laws and policies.

Annex A: Application form Contents 

This section of the document sets out the specific questions you will be asked during the Find a Grant application across 5 sections and how we recommend you complete them. 

Section	How to complete
Section 1: Eligibility	This is a checkbox to confirm you meet the eligibility criteria for the scheme.
Section 2: Your Details	These questions support our due diligence checks and are built into Find a grant.
Enter the name of your organisation	This should be the name you use for business purposes, not your franchise name etc.
Choose your organisation type	This is a drop-down box, please select the correct option for your organisation. If you are a sole trader, please select ‘Non-limited company’.
Enter your organisation’s address	Please enter your registered address to allow us to match you to other records. For sole traders, please include your taxpayer address.
Enter your Charity Commission number (if you have one) (optional)	–
Enter your Companies House number (if you have one) (optional)	–
Section 3: Funding	These questions are built into Find a Grant and will not inform our decision but help inform our data gathering.
How much does your organisation require as a grant?	This number field will not be reviewed.
Where will this funding be spent?	This is a drop-down box. Please select which region(s) of GB you intend to hire within to support our data gathering. We will not hold you to these regions if you should want to recruit in other areas in the future.
Section 4: Additional Organisation Details	These questions support our due diligence and data gathering.
Which job sector applies to your organisation	This is a multiple select question. Please select all sectors that apply to your organisation from the list.
If your organisation has previously operated under a different name, give details below	–
If your organisation started less than 2 years ago (from 05/04/2024), enter the start date below	-
Please provide a contact telephone number for the application	This should be the authorised individual leading on the recruitment.
Please provide the name of the empowered individual (Director) who has given permission to apply for this grant	-
Please provide the contact telephone number of the empowered individual (Director) who has given permission to apply for this grant	-
Please provide the email address of the empowered individual (Director) who has given permission to apply for this grant	-
5. Financial Details	This information will allow DWP to carry out compliance and due diligence checks and prevent fraud.
Enter your PAYE reference number	A PAYE number is required for the Scheme.
Enter your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) or Corporation Tax UTR (CTUTR number)	A UTR number is required for the Scheme to support due diligence checks and identify the organisation.
Enter your D-U-N-S (Data Universal Numbering System) number	A D-U-N-S number is required for the Scheme to enable DWP to pay the grant. We will verify this with Spotlight. Sole traders can request a D-U-N-S number if they do not already have one.
Enter the bank name	Provide bank details of the organisation account you would like the grant to be paid into. DWP will verify that these details match the organisation.
Enter the account name	Provide bank details of the organisation account you would like the grant to be paid into. DWP will verify that these details match the organisation.
Enter the 6-digit sort code	Provide bank details of the organisation account you would like the grant to be paid into. DWP will verify that these details match the organisation.
Enter the account number	Provide bank details of the organisation account you would like the grant to be paid into. DWP will verify that these details match the organisation.
6. Declaration	This is a checkbox to declare you accept the Terms and Conditions.