Can a 16yr old (still at school) but having left home get ANY benefits?

Savvy_Sue

Bossyboots wrote:

I have grave concerns about this landlord who does not want to do things by the book.

Me too! Maybe he is just a nice friendly man who doesn't mind letting young girls have bedsits at a reasonable rent, but maybe ... especially if he doesn't want to give a rent agreement, this is extremely dodgy, she could be out on her ear with no rights at all if the fancy took him.

Here's a devious suggestion for getting proof of the rent being paid: you can AFAIK buy a rent book from places like WH Smith. Maybe he would agree to sign it each week if she said she wanted something like that to prove that she's been a responsible tenant, managing her money well. That would be a good idea in any case so that there is never any argument about whether she has paid or not.

Bossyboots, can you also buy rent agreements off the shelf? Maybe he would sign one if it was presented to him, just can't be bothered to sort it out himself.

Have you tried a phone call to Shelter? They are often as knowledgeable as CAB on benefits, and may have ideas the rest of us haven't thought of about housing.

At least she's got the Child Benefit for a while longer! Although I didn't realise it couldn't be cancelled part way through the year!

Bossyboots

You can get rent agreements off the shelf. I am pretty sure you can get them free online as well. In fact, I think I might still have the tenancy agreement which my son signed last year in electronic form on my computer.

As for the child benefit, this has only two occassions on which it can stop during the year if the person for whom it is claimed remains in education. The first is at Easter. I think it is the Monday following Easter Monday (I will try and get some more specific info). The other occasion is the first Monday in September. These are both in the year following the 16th birthday and/or ceasing full time education. It works out therefore that you can get money later than you might think, rather than it stopping part way through the year. For example, my daughter was 18 in the March. I was still getting Child Benefit because she was still at school. She technically left school in the June but because the first stop date had gone, I got CB until the September. If she had started work in the meantime of 20 or more hours per week CB would have stopped then but if you meet the full entitlement rules you can get a few extra weeks paid.

The two points are set to correspond with the two occasions during a school year that pupils can leave.

chrisjohnbarnes

Thanks again....yes, I will phone the Social Services and try again and if they are no use I will get the person's name and mention the c word (complaint)!

The council did say the Social Services did have a duty of care and sent my niece there to get a risk assessment...they refused to do one sent her on her way with a handwritten note on a previous assessment they did (when she was living with us) just saying she was now homeless!!

I guess the quality of Social Services care differs depending on where you live!

I have met the landlord and he does seem a decent bloke but just can't be bothered with paperwork...although I do think he doesn't want any authorities involved as he doesn't want to declare his income from renting a couple of rooms in his house.

There are so few landlords where I live that will even accept people who are not working that beggars can't be choosers at the moment! Also, a lot want a large deposit and a month in advance...this one didn't. It was this one or a homeless hostel 20 miles away (the only thing the council offered).

I could get the rent book but it is the tenancy agreement which is the stumbling block really.

I will give Shelter a call...their website is quite informative however this does not sound promising:

"Social services don't have to help all homeless people who are 16 or 17 but they do have to look into your situation to check what help you are entitled to. They can't just turn you away or tell you to go to the housing department. You are probably entitled to housing and/or financial support from social services if you are under 18 and:

you have been in care in the past, or
you are disabled, or
you are classed as being a 'child in need'
If you are not in one of these groups, you should ask the housing department for help if you become homeless."

This is what she gets - passed from one place to another...when pressed they wanted to send her back to Wales as she was made homeless there...no regard for what she wanted etc!!

Actually - just read this:

"You should be considered to be a child in need if you need help to manage the things that affect your health and development. This might be the case if:

you don't have money for food
you don't have anywhere to live
you are having problems that affect your health or education
you are living with a violent person
The housing department will probably also have a responsibility to help you, because 16 and 17 year olds who have never been in care are automatically in priority need. The two departments should work together to help you. If they disagree about which department is responsible for you, get advice immediately."

I bet they say that they have offered help though and she turned it down i.e. the homeless hostel!!

Savvy_Sue

Looks as if you've done some good research there, and you're right, there is a reluctance to pick up responsibility for 16-17 year olds. And although on one level it seems pretty heartless to say "Go back to Wales because you were made homeless there" this is to avoid people deciding "Oh I fancy living in Bournemouth, I'll go there and say I'm homeless." However, your neice has a family connection with YOU, therefore the council should not insist she goes back to Wales. Printing off bits from the Shelter website and taking them to future council appointments could be useful. They may say that a homeless hostel was OK, but I'm not sure Shelter would agree, worth checking with them. I know that in this area the housing office will try to arrange emergency B&B for homeless under 25s who've been in care, I'm not aware they're sent to hostels. (Mind you the B&Bs can be pretty grim!)

Back to the landlord, if as Bossyboots says you can pick up a tenancy agreement, do you think he would agree to sign it? You could say that it is for his own protection as much as hers. I wondered if there was anything more sinister than that he didn't want to declare all his income, but it still worries me. How does he think a 16 year old still at school can afford to pay the rent?