Youth Incentive Payments Scheme (YIP)

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A decision made 22 November 2013:

Decision Reference: MD-S-2013-0117
Decision Summary Title :	Youth Incentive Payments		Date of Decision Summary:	20 November 2013
Decision Summary Author:	Operations Director		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title :	Youth Incentive Payments		Date of Written Report:	20 November 2013
Written Report Author:	Operations Director		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: Youth Incentive Payments (YIP)
Decision(s): The Minister decided to extend the non-statutory Youth Incentive Payment scheme from 1 September 2013 to 31 December 2015.
Reason(s) for Decision: In line with changes made during 2011 to the treatment of young jobseekers aged under 19 in the Income Support system, a Youth Incentive Payment scheme (YIP) was implemented from 5 September 2011. This was funded from savings within the Income Support budget. The YIP payments are targeted to encourage young people to make the best use of the support available to them in terms of improving their employability and supporting them into paid employment. YIP payments can be made to individuals successfully completing employment related activities such as approved voluntary work placements or intensive training courses. The YIP scheme will be extended until the end of 2015 having been updated to provide increased flexibility which will enable payments to be used across the range of current and future initiatives, within the Back to Work Programme.
Resource Implications: Based on current take up the financial implication is approximately £50-75,000. This will be funded through the Income Support Budget.
Action required: Operations Director to implement extension to scheme.
Signature:		Position: Minister
Date Signed:		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):

Youth Incentive Payment Scheme

Youth Incentive Payments (YIP)

Aim

To encourage young people to maximise the support available to them to:

Improve their employability; and
Move to paid employment

This scheme ensures that young people are paid reasonable costs whilst completing relevant employment related activities as agreed by the Department.

It also can provide for an incentive payment upon the completion of the above.

Examples of relevant employment related activities are:

voluntary work placement
intensive training

The above examples are not exhaustive and other activities may be approved by the Department if deemed appropriate.

Basis of Scheme

This is a non-statutory scheme. As such the scheme can be amended or withdrawn without notice by the Minister for Social Security.

Duration of YIP Scheme

The YIP scheme originally commenced from 5 September 2011 to 31 August 2012 and was extended until the end of August 2013. This has now been updated to provide increased flexibility and a further extension has been approved until 31 December 2015, thereby enabling payments to be used across the range of current and future initiatives within the Back to Work programme.

YIP Scheme Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for a YIP payment the young person must:

Be available for full time employment (i.e. not in full time education)
Meet Actively Seeking Work (ASW) requirements
Be registered with the Social Security Department as ASW
Have a current Job Seekers Agreement (if appropriate)
Have completed a YIP Registration and Responsibilities form including bank details for payment
Be aged between 16 and 19 (up until the day before 19th birthday)
Be locally qualified for work, i.e. Entitled for Work or Entitled.

Authorised Employment Support Schemes

Currently the following Employment Support schemes are included and are able to authorise payments:

Schemes within the Back to Work programme
Princes Trust
Jersey Employment Trust

Other schemes may be added by the Department as required.

Costs

The cost of running this scheme is approximately £50,000-£75,000 per annum.