‘acting in the place of a parent’

Para 4 of Reg 8 UC Regs says that a sixteen year old can get UC if they are estranged from their parents or anyone acting in the place of their parents.

Does anyone know if there is any definition of what ‘acting in the place of their parents ’  means?

My cl left the family home early in 2020, stayed with a sibling and successfully claimed UC as an estranged 16 yr old. They were then offered a bed by the parents of a friend and this has ended the UC claim as there seems to be an assumption that the friends parents have taken on the role of the cl’s actual parents rather than just offering the cl somewhere to sleep and eat.

I am reluctant to advise that the friends parents add the cl to their CTC claim/ claim ch benefit, I understand that the cl’s natural parents have not told HMRC that the cl no longer lives with them and are unlikely to do so. The friends parents could of course add the cl to their existing CTC claim but this is likely to lead to a long dispute about who has the main responsibility- I feel that it might be easier to get the UC reinstated.

I think it should be taken from it’s normal meaning. i.e. someone has taken on parental responsibility. So I suppose it depends on the individual circumstances and under what basis the client is living in this persons house.

So, if the person ‘acting in place of a parent’ has taken on all responsibility for feeding, clothing, attending parents evenings at school etc. of the claimant, and will do for the long term I think this would arguably mean that the person has taken on parental responsibility.

If the person has given the client a bed to sleep in in a spare room but the client is still feeding themselves, buying their own clothing, making their own GP appointments and is largely just being responsible for themselves. Or if this arrangement is for a few weeks until the client gets settled elswhere then it is arguable that the person is not acting in place of a parent.

To be honest, not something I have come across much but everytime I have I have always thought that the regs seemed very wooly. In this case if the person is being treated as ‘acting in place of a parent’  then I’m not sure why the older sibling is not. On a strategic note and from what you have said I think you have probably realised this, I think if you are going to challenge UC then it would be unwise for the person that the child is living with to claim CTC/CHB as I feel it would be much harder to then roll this back.