The £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant is not the £2,000 one
Two payments, two departments, two sets of rules, and they are being confused constantly.
The Youth Jobs Grant launched on 30 June 2026 and pays an employer £3,000 for hiring an eligible young person. It is run by the Department for Work and Pensions, it covers Great Britain rather than England, and it has nothing to do with apprenticeship funding. It is being mixed up with the £2,000 apprenticeship hiring payment constantly, and the two have almost no eligibility criteria in common.
Who counts as eligibleThe young person must be 18 to 24, out of work, and on Universal Credit for six months, and must not be eligible for the Jobs Guarantee, which is normally reached at 18 months. So it sits in a specific window of unemployment, not simply any young hire.
What the employer has to beAny size and any sector, sole traders included, trading for at least six months, registered with HMRC with an active PAYE scheme, and holding a D-U-N-S number. Central government departments, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are excluded. Local authorities are eligible.
What the job has to beAt least 25 hours a week, lasting at least 16 weeks, paid at or above the minimum or living wage, not displacing existing staff, and no more than half of it online training. The vacancy also must not displace an existing apprentice.
How it pays£1,800 after about six weeks and £1,200 after about eighteen, so not an even split. The first payment needs at least 50 hours worked by week six, rechecked at week ten for 100 hours. The second needs 300 hours by week eighteen, rechecked at week twenty-two. Earnings are verified through HMRC Real Time Information, and payslips are not accepted as evidence.
The cap that catches peopleOne funded hire for an employer with nought to three employees, two for four to nine, and up to 20% of staff for anyone with ten or more. A small employer planning several of these will hit the ceiling quickly.
Can you claim both?This is the question worth getting a written answer to. The grant guidance does not address the apprenticeship hiring payment at all. FE Week has reported an understanding that an eligible business could claim both for the same person, but that is not confirmed in the guidance, and the two schemes sit in different departments. If it matters to a case you are working on, ring the Employer Services Line on 0800 169 0178 and get the answer in writing rather than relying on either of us.
What followsApply through Find a Grant on GOV.UK, which needs a One Login, then submit vacancies and send a pre-start form before the young person starts. The scheme aims at roughly 60,000 opportunities over three years and closes to new vacancies in October 2028.