Derek Thomas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Thomas on 2015-11-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to ensure that every young person covered by the youth obligation receives appropriate financial advice, education and support for the first six months as part of their preparation for work.

Priti Patel

From April 2017, we will be introducing the new Youth Obligation for Universal Credit claimants aged 18-21 who we expect to look for work. This new programme of support will help young people develop skills and experience to get on in work.

The first three weeks of this will be a Work Coach led Intensive Activity Period (IAP), where young people on the Youth Obligation will complete a set curriculum of activity designed to help establish them as effective full time job-seekers straight away and support them into work as soon as possible.

Once the claimant has completed the curriculum they will continue to see a dedicated IAP Work Coach who will work with them, continuously reviewing what was achieved during the intensive start-up period.

We will be conducting a stakeholder engagement exercise to help inform the design of the Youth Obligation and will be inviting stakeholders with an interest in the provision of financial advice.

We will set out our policy design for the Youth Obligation in due course.