More than 6,000 people have signed up to the government’s flagship £2 billion Kickstart youth employment scheme in its first day of operation.

Under the scheme, employers will be able to offer young people on Universal Credit state-subsidised work placements.

As of July, there were almost 538,000 young people aged 24 and under on Universal Credit, a rise of around 250,000 from March.

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Long-term unemployment

The Kickstart scheme was announced by chancellor Rishi Sunak in his statement in July. It will subsidise six-month placements for young people on Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment, with the government covering 100 per cent of the national minimum wage for 25 hours a week.

"These will be new jobs," the chancellor said at the time, "with the funding conditional on the proof that the jobs are additional. These will be decent jobs, with a minimum of 25 hours a week paid at least the national minimum wage, and they will be good quality jobs with employers providing Kickstarters with training and support to find a permanent job."

Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey said today that the scheme could fund “well over 200,000 jobs”, adding: “But as I’ve said, the number is unlimited.”

Ms Coffey told the House of Commons: “More than 6,000 people had already started an application yesterday. That’s very encouraging, and I’m very excited about it.”

Labour and the SNP welcomed the scheme this week but warned that the winding down of the furlough scheme could result in a “jobs crisis”.

SNP MP Stephen Flynn said: “It is not going to avert the looming jobs crisis. The best way to avert that crisis is to extend the job retention scheme. Does the secretary of state agree that scheme should be extended, and if not, is this not less Kickstart and more kick in the teeth for millions of other workers?”

Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the party wants the scheme to ape the previous Labour government’s Future Jobs Fund that was scrapped in 2011.

He added: “Since this crisis began we have been urging the government to introduce a scheme based on the last Labour government’s hugely successful Future Jobs Fund to get as many young people into work as possible.

“We therefore welcome the Kickstart scheme in principle, but we want assurances it will be delivered in a way that maximises its impact.”

Tory MP Rob Roberts said he was “slightly concerned some unscrupulous employers may use this scheme to reduce the hours of people who they already have on their books or potentially not give the hours to people who are already with them on flexible contracts”.