Apply for Youth Jobs Grant

The Government has committed to ensuring that every young person has access to further education, training or a job, and the new Youth Jobs Grant, which opened for applications on 30 June 2026, will pay employers £3,000 for taking on a young person aged 18 to 24 who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for over six months.

• To apply for the grant, employers must operate in Great Britain, have traded for at least six months, be registered with HMRC, and not be part of central Government.
• After their suitability has been assessed, employers will be invited to submit vacancies, which must pay at least the National Minimum Wage for a minimum of 25 hours per week for a minimum of 16 weeks.
• The number of funded roles available to each employer will be based on a 'permitted ratio' of total employees.
• Once the young person starts, the grant will be paid in two stages: £1,800 after six weeks and £1,200 after 18 weeks.

Part of the Youth Guarantee scheme, the grant will be available for three years until October 2028, and applications should be submitted via the online application form. An employer toolkit has been produced to help navigate the process and recruitment support is available through Jobcentre Plus.