UC for a Young Person with disabilities

Hi All

I have a client in receipt of IS for all of her family, no tax credits in payment. She is carer for her son who is Autistic. He is 16. CB and IS in respect of him stopped in September as he is not in education. He has not been to school for 3 years but receives home visits from an organisation that provides Education Support. My client thinks of them as teachers but they seem to provide support more than education - I am looking into this further. Wondering if I could argue he is educated at home?

Otherwise how do they go about making a UC claim? UC is available to those under 18 who have LCW. Is he able to claim UC or would he claim New Style ESA in order to start the assessment process?

TIA

Never done it but it appears that with a Fit Note the son can make a claim for UC and will then be assessed. I don’t see a need to go via ESA. Your client can ask to be an appointee if that is needed.

Obviously client needs to start their own claim.

I might be misunderstanding this but - don’t you want your argument to be that he ISNT in education? Isn’t it much easier to make a claim to UC as submitting fit notes while awaiting LCW assessment (which can be done from aged 16) without the complications of being classed as “receiving education”. You then pass the LCW assessment, and if you have PIP, get as much education as you can handle. Like I say I might be missing something here…....

I was just thinking that if he is still in education then I could appeal the decision to stop IS in September as she hasn’t received any benefit for him since then. Could get CB reinstated as well.

Also thought if he is still in education then that could scupper the UC claim.