Which benefit for YP without parental support?

18 year old in full-time non-advanced education is about to be thrown out of the house by mum. It looks like he could claim Income Support as a person without parental support but could also claim Universal Credit and possibly ESA.

If he was able to claim IS, he would get disability premium straight away and SDP as he gets PIP DL component. This would remove the possibility of making a UC claim.

I am wondering which is best to go for tactically. IS would get premiums in place but ESA could get his LCW assessed prior to being migrated onto UC. Any thoughts?

The problem with SDP is that he cannot claim IS unless he already has an SDP … and he cannot get an SDP without claiming IS.  As far as I can see the only means tested benefit he can claim is UC.

The only other way round it is to get into temporary or supported accommodation and claim HB, which would include an SDP, and then get IS on the back of that.  In Scotland he should have a reasonable chance of being placed in a temp acc and/or supported setting shouldn’t he?

Yes, he may well be placed in supported accommodation but failing that, I guess there would be no SDP barrier to a UC claim if he can’t get SDP in an existing claim. Thanks

Unless the council doesn’t deem him eligible for homelessness support, I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t be placed in temporary accommodation, it doesn’t have to be supported accommodation.

I assume you have waiting lists for LA/HA housing that are plenty long enough to keep him there until HB is put into payment…

He is still under the care of Children and Families team and will be transferred to Learning Disability team when he leaves education. As such, they are not keen on putting a vulnerable young person into temporary accommodation but are hoping to find him a supported living tenancy. Failing that, they would put commissioned care into a normal tenancy, thus rendering him ineligible for HB.