youthmoney

It’s April, so benefit rates change. Here are the current rates relevant to young jobseekers: Contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance Aged 16-17: £50.95 Aged 18-24: £50.95 Aged 25 or over: £64.30 Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance Personal allowances – single people Aged 16-17: £50.95 Aged 18-24: £50.95 Aged 25 or over: £64.30 Personal allowances – couples Both aged 16-17: [...]

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Cash grants of £190 to mothers-to-be will start being paid in April. Claim forms for the tax-free, one-off payment are available now from midwives and doctors. To qualify, you must be at least 25 weeks pregnant, with a due-date on or after 6 April 2009. The “health in pregnancy grant”, which comes from HM Revenue [...]

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National media are doing a pretty lousy job of covering the education maintenance allowance failures. Only the BBC news online seems to be taking it at all seriously—reporting the experiences of young people who’ve been let down and the frustration caused. It quotes Nigel Robbins, principal of Cirencester College in Gloucestershire, “There’s no sense of [...]

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Earlier this week I was talking to a youth worker. She was saying how delighted she was that three of the young people who attended the project had just started college courses. Given their life histories, this was a major, major step forward for them.  I asked about Education Maintenance Allowance and she said, yes, [...]

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Good article by Ruth Smith in Children and Young People Now. It looks at the financial realities of five young women from a YWCA project in Kent. Good to see their stories, their voices and their weekly budgets. Eighteen-year-old Cherelea simply says about her budget, “I still haven’t got the hang of it”. She probably [...]

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There’s little cheer for college students relying on Education Maintenance Allowance. The technical problems that have delayed their payments are to continue.  The education department says there is no guarantee that young people will get their grants – worth up to £30 a week for 16- to 18-year-olds – this side of Christmas. According to [...]

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Unless you are a trained welfare rights worker it’s best to avoid giving a young person advice on benefits. Why? The answer arrived in the post a week last Saturday. Got me out of bed. Obviously, because even our specially large post box can’t house it. It weighs 1kg, is 40mm thick and consists of [...]

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How much does it cost a young person to make a benefit claim? Funny question. People don’t have to pay when they apply for a welfare benefit, do they? In effect, many do. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has largely done away with face-to-face contact in local offices. You now make a claim by [...]

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