The government today admitted it has suffered a "backlog" and used incorrect figures in its flagship coronavirus jobs scheme.
Tory welfare chief Therese Coffey confessed the Kickstart scheme has had a "slow start" since it was launched in September. And she revealed Department for Work and Pensions boasts that it had "created 120,000 jobs" were false.
In fact, at the time of her claim the figure was more like 110,000, but was misrepresented due to a "keying error". This still overstates the scheme because it was the total number of placements approved, not the number advertised or taken up.
Just 1,868 young people had started job placements under the scheme as of mid-January. Only 10,000 are currently advertised.
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