Job Start Payment - Scotland - Can I get the Job Start Payment - Scotland?

The Job Start Payment - Scotland is available for:

• People aged 16 to 24; and
• Care leavers aged 16 to 25.

People aged 16 to 24

• You must be aged 16 to 24 at the time you get a job offer; and
• You must have been offered a paid job (at least 12 hours per week, averaged over a four-week period) within the past six months; and 
• You must have been out of paid work for six months or more at the time you were offered a job (including self-employment); and
• You must have been getting one of these benefits for 6 months at the time you were offered a job;
  • Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA)
  • Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
  • Income Support
  • Universal Credit
• You have to have been living in Scotland on the day you were offered the job; and
• You can't have received a Job Start Payment in the past two years.

If you received contributory ESA or JSA before this, you can still apply, as long as you were on one of the benefits listed above for at least 6 months. 

Care leavers aged 16 to 25

You will be considered a care leaver if you were looked after by social services , whether in care or with your family, at the time you turned 16.

To be entitled to a Job Start Payment as a care leaver:

• You have to be aged 16 to 25 at the time you were offered a job; and 
• You must have been offered a paid job (at least 12 hours per week, averaged over a four-week period) within the past six months; and
• You have to have been out of paid work on the day you were offered the job (including self-employment); and
• You have to have been getting one of these benefits on the day you were offered the job:
  • Universal Credit
  • Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
  • Income-related Employment and Support Allowance 
  • Income Support
• You have to have been living in Scotland on the day you were offered the job; and
• You can't have received a Job Start Payment in the past two years.