Claiming UC for 19 year Old Disabled Son at college

Adamhackett

Background:

Our son will be 19 on 7/8/2025, he is  Autistic and a full-time student doing a basic level 3 course at college. My partner is both mine and our sons f/time careers so is excused from seeking work, she is also our sons appointee on his PIP and would be on the UC if it could be granted.

I am currently claiming UC and I qualify for the LCWRA group, at the moment  our Son is still on our claim and we get the child element and the severe disability child element. We have been told this will end on 7/8/2025 as he can only be classed as a child until his 19th Birthday. The child and disabled element is worth over £850 pm so losing this is going to put a big strain on us, currently this money pays to clothe feed our son and also gives him a small amount to spend on himself.

As he is a student and living at home I'm seeing on various DWP pages and other sites that he cannot claim UC as he is classed as having parental support as does not live on hs own, 
Now as we are losing the £850 we used to get from the child elements, we can no longer support him, so apart from giving him a room and a bed, practically we are not supporting him as we are not going to be able to pay for his food or any other personal expenditure. 

Also there is mention of him needing to having limited capability for work, however I'm told this can't be assessed until he has an active UC claim and as he can't get an active UC claim as he a student how can he get this, a bit of a chicken and egg paradox here. 

So my questions here are:

1) Does anybody have any experience in this and is there a way of him claiming UC? If not how is he expected to live?

2) Can we argue that we don't give him parental support, as apart from a bed we were not in a position to provide him with food or any other money.

3) Is there any way around this limited capability issue? Can his PIP assessment be used to show he is unable to work?

Thank you for reading, any advise would be much appreciated. 

KxMx

Many families struggle with the transition from dependant children to non dependant adults within the welfare system. 

Disabled students & UC are a complex area, I'd recommend contacting Disability Rights UK who have a Disabled Students Helpline.

https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/disabled-students-helpline

huckster

UC child and disabled elements will end in the assessment period  where 31st August is reached after 19 lth birthday . But if he has finished a course recently, then he should be taken off UC claim from the day after course ended for the Summer.

Son would then need to claim UC as someone completing non advanced education, but who could complete work related activities at start of claim. Does not mean he could not later report fit note to go through Work Capability Assessment.

sheramber

Disabled Student Helpline

https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/disabled-students-helpline?srsltid=AfmBOop57OZUpYauVbVYu-SV7gZrT4gXmN1MoqKFRKpn41zfIS3iweQ-

Northern_Wanderer

Unfortunately he is unabe to claim UC as a student in his situation, it appesars he is still classed as a Qualifying Young Person (QYP). For him to be able to claim UC as a student, he would have to have been assessed as having Limtied Capability for Work (LCW) before starting the course to be able to claim UC as a student. 

Alternatively, if he is estranged from his parents, he could claim UC, but still living at home would not wash with the DWP unfortunatley. 

It may have been possible to make a "NI Credits Only" claim for new style ESA from age16, to get LCW/RA before becoming a student, but I suspect that ship has sailed.

This guide is aimed at Scottish students but the rules around UC/ students are the same. https://askcpag.org.uk/?id=-258080

When did he start course and when does it end?

8dayweek

Child Element / Disabled Child Element for a qualifying young person continues until the end of August after the 19th Birthday. 

Thereafter he’d need to claim UC in his own right (or rather, Partner would submit / operate the UC claim as their Appointee). 

Non-advanced education is not treated as being in Education as long as it’s compatible with their work related requirements. At that point, there’s two paths - the Commitments with a Work Coach encompass the College course, but otherwise Work Search etc will be required OR obtain a fit note from the GP to start the Health journey, which means Work Search will be switched off and only reasonable / tailored Work Preparation activities apply (which will most likely be “attend your College course”).