Youth Unemployment and the Future Jobs Fund
27 July 2010
The Future Jobs Fund (FJF) was announced in the 2009 Budget as a part of the Young Person’s Guarantee. Funding of around £1 billion was pledged, to be spent between October 2009 and March 2011, to support the creation of 150,000 temporary jobs, primarily for 18-24 year olds who had been out of work for at least six months. As part of the March 2010 Budget, the scheme was extended for another year to March 2012.
DWP statistics show that in the first four months of the scheme (October 2009 to January 2010), 8,660 DWP claimants started a FJF job (of which 5,920 were aged between 18 and 24).
The Coalition Government announced in May that it would cancel the extension of the FJF, and that it would now run until March 2011. DWP is not accepting any further bids, but existing guarantees will still be met.
The Work and Pensions Committee has decided to conduct a short inquiry into Youth Unemployment and the Future Jobs Fund. Written evidence is invited from interested organisations. The focus of the inquiry will be on:
- The extent to which the FJF has succeeded in matching new work experience opportunities to young unemployed people.
- Strengths and weaknesses of the FJF programme from the perspective of providers (including in the third sector), employers and young unemployed people, and particularly in relation to the long-term sustainability of employment opportunities.
- The likely impact of the decision to end the FJF in March 2011 rather than March 2012 How the transition from FJF to the Work Programme will be managed, including the part to be played by the Government’s proposal to fund new apprenticeships.
The deadline for written evidence is Friday 10 September 2010.