under 18's and jsa

gemm.stone

A young lady came to live with us just after she turned 16 cos of issues at home, because she went on to college we were able to claim child tax credits and child benefit for her, however because of mental health problems she needs to drop out of college so what happens money wise? She is only 17 and we are currently on jsa so cant support her. Can she get jsa for herself as we are not her parents? Thanks.

thorsoak

Has she got a CPN? Should be able to give advice!

gemm.stone

Hi, whats a cpn?

cattie

CPN is a community psychiatric nurse. Not always easy to get one allocated to you in this day and age of cutbacks. Usually have to have very serious mental health issues.

For anybody who has not been hospitalised due to their mental health, the gneral route to getting a cpn is to be first referred to psychiatrist by GP and psychiatrist will decide whether a cpn referral is appropriate.

pmlindyloo

You can get a 'run on' of Child Benefit and Child Tax Credits if the young person is registered with a career service or Connexions.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/keep-up-to-date/when-child-aged-16/leave-education.htm

Your first port of call should be the Job Centre who can advise you how to support her.

Perhaps more important is getting some help with her mental health issues. Doctor is the obvious first stage and then any support services that can be offered.

Horseunderwater

gemm.stone wrote: »

Hi, whats a cpn?

She may be able to go down the ESA route rather than get JSA if she has serious MHealth problems. First try and get her referred to a psychiatrist to get her assessed and hopefully then referred to a CPN.
She may not be fit for work in her current state, so getting a "fit note" from the GP at the same time would help with that.
That is another option.

pmlindyloo

Horseunderwater wrote: »

She may be able to go down the ESA route rather than get JSA if she has serious MHealth problems. First try and get her referred to a psychiatrist to get her assessed and hopefully then referred to a CPN.
She may not be fit for work in her current state, so getting a "fit note" from the GP at the same time would help with that.
That is another option.

ESA for 16/17 year old is not an easy route to go down as the qualifying criteria are quite complicated.

See here:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/young-benefit-claimants-services.pdf

There will be advisors at the Job Centre for such young people so hopefully the OP will get some good advice as to which route to take.

iluvmarmite

I don't know much about JSA but if you are able to claim tax credits and child benefit for her couldn't you claim JSA for her as well, like people do for their own kids, or cant you include kids on a JSA claim?

mark24c

iluvmarmite wrote: »

I don't know much about JSA but if you are able to claim tax credits and child benefit for her couldn't you claim JSA for her as well, like people do for their own kids, or cant you include kids on a JSA claim?

You don't know what your talking about do you

Poppie68

mark24c wrote: »

You don't know what your talking about do you

Rudeness is a nasty trait!

iluvmarmite

mark24c wrote: »

You don't know what your talking about do you

Nope, never claimed JSA but as I know you can claim for a couple so thought you can claim for kids as well, but I guess we can't know everything can we, thanks for your polite reply any way