Why is targeting based on income rather than skills levels?
Targeting people on low incomes will help to address financial concerns about getting involved in learning which research shows is a significant (though by no means the only) barrier to participation in learning by non-traditional learners. Also, we do not consider self declaration of attained skills to be a sufficiently robust assessment to prevent misuse of the scheme. Income on the other hand can be more reliably verified and low income individuals more readily targeted for promotion of the scheme.
