Apprenticeship course but no job yet- information?

Wicked_witch

Hi there,

Dreading posting on this board so try not to shred me.

My son will find out tomorrow if he has been accepted onto an IT apprenticeship course. The course also helps the students find appropriate placements, but this doesn't always happen straight away (they are a real and reputable firm). If he doesn't get the place he will go to college in September, but he is already 18 and will be 19 in December.

If he is accepted onto the course but doesn't get a placement for a few weeks, will we or he be allowed to claim any money?

Relevant info, my husband is disabled (middle care DLA, long term IB) and I care for him full time (CA and some IS). This means we can't just get better jobs or work more hours in order to cover the child benefit and tax credits we will presumably lose. My son will be looking for an interim job just to bring money in.

Alternatively, if he does go to college for a two year course, what happens next year, when he will be almost turning 20? I have a strong feeling that TC don't go on that long, although CB does.

Thanks.

Dunroamin

If the college course is counted as full time you'll be able to carry on claiming CB and CTC until his 20th birthday. Has he been in education, working or claiming JSA up til now?

Wicked_witch

He's been in education, but has only just settled on IT. He's already taught himself a lot of things, but has more or less wasted two years of FE already in music and AS levels unfortunately. It looks like he would need to be working part time either way since he would be 20 in the first term of the second year. I'm still impressed though, I would have expected it all to end on his 19th!

tronlegacy

Our child benefit was stopped when son started college at age 17.He took NQ LEVEL 5(computing) and we were told that this was classed as a higher level of education and we were no longer entitled to child benefit.
He received EMA(we are in Scotland) and we also no longer got anything for him through IS.

Dunroamin

Parents can claim CB/CTC until the student is 20 if in non advanced FE which is up to level 3.