The European Social Fund has helped at least 9.4 million European residents in finding a job between 2007 and 2014, with the each job coming at a taxpayer cost of £8,400, according to a report from the European Commission.

The report also shows that 8.7 million European residents gained a qualification or certificate. Furthermore, 13.7 million participants reported results such as increased skills levels and education.

The European Commission says that EU member states benefited from significant additional financial resources under the European Social Fund to address employment and social challenges, to reach people and set up policies that otherwise would have had difficulty finding financial support. The fund provided more than 70% of resources for active labour market policies in Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Slovakia and more than 5% of expenditure on education and training in Portugal and Czech Republic.

However, critics have raised concerns over the cost-effectiveness of the program, which accounts for approximately a tenth of all EU spending and had a total budget of £99 billion for the years 2007-2014, according to the express.co.uk. Nearly 80% of the European Social Fund’s funding is dedicated to boosting skills, education and employment prospects, meaning it cost taxpayers £8,400 for every person the program managed to get into a job.