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;
  • Universal Credit
  • Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA)
  • Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
  • 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.

If you received Contributory/New Style 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.