Reg 8(3)(iii) & Reg 8(4)UC Regs 2013 “without parental support”

Reg 8(3)(iii) You are entitled to UC while receiving education if you are: under 21 on a non-advanced course ...and are “without parental support”...Reg 8(4) “parent” includes any person acting in place of a parent.

What does Reg 8(4) actually mean? Has anyone had experience of cases where this is relevant?

My context is a 17 year-old who has been given some type of status (no sure exactly what type yet) who is living away from her parents because they are not allowed to enter or re-enter Great Britain. She intends to live with her older sister. Would she be able to claim UC or would UC class her sister as acting in place of her parents?

Jim

Hello

See the following threads:

https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/16497

https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/15415

I couldn’t find any relevant UC case law, but there is a similar condition in Income Support (Reg 13(2)(d)and(e) IS Regs), on which there are at least two relevant cases:

R(IS)9/94: “a person acting in the place of parents may include an informal relationship” (para. 13)

And:

CIS/4096/2005: “[T]he statutory test under regulation 13(2)(d) of the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987 means that the adult must in practice be acting broadly in a way that a parent would.  So, even if he or she does not formally hold parental responsibility, he or she must be acting as what is sometimes described as a social parent.” (para. 23)

https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/welfare-rights/caselaw/item/Young-person-whether-boyfriends-father-acting-in-place-of-parent

Things like permanency, commitment, material and financial support are all relevant.

Hope that’s helpful,

L

Thanks Liam. These links and references are all very helpful.

Jim