Apprenticeships and benefits

pinkykat

My son is 18yrs and at college he has been offered an apprenticeship for two days a week training to be an rail engineer 26 weeks in total.
He will be paid £60 per week.
The thing is that I am on IS, get child benefits and maintenance off my ex. and get a benefit because he is in full time education. He gets £30 ema at the moment.
If he does this what will I lose?
The training is with silvertrack training/enterprise solutions.

krisskross

You have to consider what is best for him and a future career. It is hard for the youngsters to get started in work and opportunities such as this do not come along very often.

You must have known the time was coming when you would no longer be able to claim 'child' related benefits. He is an adult now.

melbi_uk

Claiming for a young person after 16
From the September following a young person’s 16th birthday, it is only possible to carry on getting payments for them as
a dependent if they attend a course of
full-time non-advanced education or an
approved training course.
Payments can then usually continue until their 19th birthday, unless they stop attending the course or training before that date (see page 6 for more details). Payments can be extended to their 20th birthday if they’re completing a course they started (or were enrolled on, or offered a place on) before they turned 19.

What is non-advanced education?
A course is non-advanced education when it is below the level of an HND (HNC in Scotland). This includes ‘A’ levels and below, Advanced Highers (Scotland) and below, NVQ/SVQ Level 3 and below, Ordinary National Diplomas or BTEC Diplomas. There may be other courses which are also classed as non-advanced.
If you are uncertain about the level of your child’s course, seek further advice.
What is an approved training course?
Young people who are attending certain types of approved training are treated as if they were in non advanced education. This applies to work-based training programmes which don’t pay a wage.

Taken from: http://www.cafamily.org.uk/pdfs/money_when_your_child_reaches_16.pdf

Worth having a good read there.

Oldernotwiser

At 26 weeks, this sounds like a "scheme" rather than a genuine apprenticeship. Has he looked into the employment situation after he's done this?

Also, will he still be in college for the other 3 days as this may still count as full time education.

ETA

Looking at their website under "Success Stories", it's interesting that nobody mentions actually having a job. The training provider should be able to give your son figures regarding how many of its apprentices have got jobs on the railways.

melbi_uk

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

At 26 weeks, this sounds like a "scheme" rather than a genuine apprenticeship. Has he looked into the employment situation after he's done this?

Also, will he still be in college for the other 3 days as this may still count as full time education.

ETA

Looking at their website under "Success Stories", it's interesting that nobody mentions actually having a job. The training provider should be able to give your son figures regarding how many of its apprentices have got jobs on the railways.

Is it one of those schemes where the company get paid so much for taking on an apprentice. The scheme pays the apprentice, not the company.

If so, I totally disagree with them!

A lot of companies are using this scheme to get an extra pair of hands and getting paid for it at the same time.