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Financial assistance

Financial assistance can improve employment for young people by reducing barriers to access and participation, and may support engagement in education and training.

Last updated: 26 August 2026

Education

Employment

Training

6 more young people in work per 100

For every 100 young people who are NEET and take part in financial assistance as a component of a targeted youth employment intervention, around 6 additional young people are in employment 12 to 24 months later compared to similar young people who did not take part. This component could increase recent employment by around 6 percentage points.

Key findings

Headline insights about this component based on current high-quality evidence

Positive

EET outcomes

Overall, financial assistance is likely to have a positive impact on young people's recent employment, and engagement in vocational education and training.

The research suggests that financial assistance is likely to have a positive impact on:

‘recent employment’ (with >80% probability of a positive impact)
‘getting an occupational licence’ (50% probability of impacts in the ‘high positive’ range), which may reflect help with the costs that can be associated with this particular route.

This intervention is associated with a very low negative impact on apprenticeship participation, possibly because young people who receive financial assistance are less likely to seek out paid forms of training.

Work quality

Financial assistance is likely to have a low positive impact on the number of hours that young people work. Little or no impact on other work quality outcomes may reflect greater focus on gaining experience and qualifications.

Subgroup analysis

Impacts may be greater for older individuals within the 16-24 age group, which could reflect the higher likelihood of living independently or having dependents.

What is financial assistance?

Financial assistance provides targeted financial support to help jobseekers overcome barriers that hinder the search for or engagement in employment, education or training.

Typically financial assistance

involves small grants or subsidies to cover job-related expenses like transportation costs, clothes or uniform, equipment or documentation requirements

may cover childcare, without which a young people cannot attend work or learning

can help with the ‘first month problem’ when a new employee no longer receives benefits and so has no cash to pay rent and other bills before they receive their first paycheck

Who is financial assistance for?

Young people who are not in work or training, and who face barriers to taking part in work or learning because of the associated costs that would otherwise be prohibitive.

Who can offer financial assistance?

Any UK organisation — business, charity, public-sector body or social enterprise — that meets legal requirements such as:

providing a safe working environment
complying with working-time rules for young people

How long is financial assistance?

The duration and terms of financial assistance vary considerably with individual contexts and the needs of young people.

How is financial assistance funded?

Funding may come from diverse sources or from a mixture of sources including:

government (local or central)
charities
employers seeking to enhance skills for potential trainees or employees.

Benefits for young people

By easing or removing practical barriers to participation in work and learning, financial assistance can support young people to:

gain work experience, skills and qualifications that support long-term success in the labour market

fulfil their potential in employment and training

Benefits for employers

Financial assistance can support employers to:

recruit and retain young people who may not otherwise be able to access or remain in roles
access a wider pool of talent and build a pipeline to sustain longer term employment

The cost rating for financial assistance is moderatemoderate

Calculations are based on insights from available high-quality studies on the complexity of delivery requirements and estimated associated costs.

Outreach and recruitment activity

Tailored and varied with associated staffing, materials, scheduling and administrative costs. Delivery to young people with complex needs or vulnerabilities may require a more targeted approach to recruitment.

Delivery intensity

The amount of financial support provided may either be fixed for all participants or vary according to individually assessed vulnerabilities and financial barriers.

Delivery partners

Funders, employers and potential intermediaries that need to co-ordinate in partnership, supported by programme planning and management, requiring additional admin resource

Delivery expertise

No specialist training required

Wages, financial assistance or incentives

Requires funding to provide grants or subsidies to young people, and may also include administrative costs for managing assessment, recruitment and payments

Delivery settings

No specialist premises required and can be integrated and combined with other intervention types and support packages.

Outreach and recruitment activity	Tailored and varied with associated staffing, materials, scheduling and administrative costs. Delivery to young people with complex needs or vulnerabilities may require a more targeted approach to recruitment.
Delivery intensity	The amount of financial support provided may either be fixed for all participants or vary according to individually assessed vulnerabilities and financial barriers.
Delivery partners	Funders, employers and potential intermediaries that need to co-ordinate in partnership, supported by programme planning and management, requiring additional admin resource
Delivery expertise	No specialist training required
Wages, financial assistance or incentives	Requires funding to provide grants or subsidies to young people, and may also include administrative costs for managing assessment, recruitment and payments
Delivery settings	No specialist premises required and can be integrated and combined with other intervention types and support packages.

Considerations for decision makers

Based on existing evidence, we’ve identified some common features that support the commissioning, design and delivery of effective youth employment programmes:

Ensure outreach and awareness activities are effective and targeted to reach those most likely to benefit

Read more about Ensure outreach and awareness activities are effective and targeted to reach those most likely to benefit

Design, fund and deliver outreach and recruitment activities that raise young people’s awareness, with targeted initiatives to reach under-represented group who are most likely to benefit.

This might include:

Young people who have been out of work and/or learning for longer periods.
Young people without Level 2 qualifications.
Young people whose life experiences put them at higher risk of marginalisation in the labour market, for example those with experience of the care system and/or with SEN.

Discover more about risk factors associated with being NEET.

Also consider how best to identify and engage the most suitable partners and employers for a programme. Engagement should be timely and clear, in ways that raise awareness and facilitate recruitment, enrolment, and sustained engagement.

Effective programmes may use direct community outreach activities for engaging under-served groups, alongside up-to-date local and administrative data, working with public employment services, or advertising vacancies along with eligibility criteria.

Tailor and structure programmes well to support access and maintain engagement

Read more about Tailor and structure programmes well to support access and maintain engagement

Design, fund and deliver programmes that consider and seek to address specific participation needs and minimise barriers. This can be done with local labour market knowledge, and assessment of individual’s circumstances.

Incorporate participants’ insights and feedback to better respond to needs and improve service delivery, performance and outcomes.

Take a joined-up, collaborative approach

Read more about Take a joined-up, collaborative approach

A strong relationship between policymakers, learning providers, employers, community organisations and local skills delivery organisations including Mayoral Strategic Authorities and Local Skills Improvement Plan areas supports effective youth employment support programmes.

Design, fund and deliver programmes that foster collaboration with education providers such as colleges to improve access to relevant teaching experience.

Encourage systematic monitoring and evaluation to help build and strengthen the evidence base

Read more about Encourage systematic monitoring and evaluation to help build and strengthen the evidence base

Support providers and delivery organisations to accurately and systematically capture and communicate data and milestones and track programme outcomes. This may include structured and standardised tracking forms, or developing realistic programme-specific performance frameworks.

For funders and commissioners – ensure recorded data, reporting and assessment captures a full range of appropriate and relevant youth employment and related outcomes to help rich understanding to ensure rich picture of what programmes do.

Encouraging reporting commonly recognised metrics allows evaluation to be easily comparable and included in the growing evidence base.

About the evidence

What’s included in the analysis?

Read more about What’s included in the analysis?

Included studies	30
Location(s)	High-income countries
Outcome	Labour force status, earnings, employment duration, hours worked, and education & skills
Comparator	'Services as usual' / Business as usual

The Youth Employment Toolkit brings together evidence from robust studies in high-income countries that:

measured the intervention’s impact against what would have happened without it
defined financial assistance as a component of a targeted intervention to support youth employment outcomes

Find details of individual studies, as well as other systematic reviews of youth employment evaluations, in the Youth Employment Evidence and Gap Map.

More information about included studies can be found in page 55-60 of the full CNMA report. The specific evidence profile for financial assistance can be found on page 167.

The evidence strength ratings for financial assistance reflect the number of studies included in the meta-analysis. Studies were scored on reported design, sample size, approach to attrition, and definitions of interventions and outcome measures. More detail can be found in the technical guide.

Implications for evaluators and commissioners

Read more about Implications for evaluators and commissioners

The current evidence can be strengthened by taking a consistent approach to incorporating standardised metrics for education, employment and training outcomes as well as outcomes that indicate work quality.

Financial assistance