Can anyone help? Having difficulty finding the answer. 17 year old on LRC DLA on supported learning course at college in foster care. Could she claim Incap in Youth and/or Income Support or is she exempt as funded by local authority(Scotland)? Would also be useful if you know the regs involved.

Can only answer for England, but I'm not aware it's any different North of the border.

Client couldn't claim Incap in Youth if she is in full time education, defined as over 21 hours/week excluding any hours which are specifically tailored for people with a disability. If not in full time education, she could claim Incap in Youth if she had been incapable of work for 196 days etc.

She could get IS as a disabled student as she is entitled to the disability premium through her DLA.

Sorry I haven't got time to rummage for the reg refs at the moment, but post another query if you still need them.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Its not so much the issue about full-time education as it is a course of 21 hours all of which are specifically for young people with disabilities. It is whether she can claim at all because the local authority is paying for her foster care. i.e. is the local authority under a duty to meet needs of maintenance in foster care and therefore excludes young person from social security benefits?

The LA's duty to provide accommodation and maintenance under fostering arrangements does not remove entitlement to IB or IS. If the young person claims benefits it is up to the LA whether they reduce the fostering payments on the assumption that the benefits would be passed on to the foster carer. For practical reasons I suspect that most LAs do not reduce payments. Once the young person has claimed benefits in their own right, nobody else can claim for them of course, hence the LA cannot claim the CB as it normally would.

Hi Brian

LA and Child Benefit. Can yourself or anyone else give me circumstances when the LA can claim Child Benefit.

Many thanks

Shaun

Hi Shaun

It seems I have been misled. When I first started here 11 months ago I was told that Northumberland CC do claim CB for children in foster care, and until now I have never had any reason to question this. Having checked I now understand that CB can only be claimed by an individual, not an organisation.

Sorry all!