What benefits for a 17 year old pregnant girl?

[crosser62]

Was 17 last month, 8 weeks pregnant.
No prospect of ever getting a job, not been in school since aged 13.

How financially will she survive?

Lives with mother & mothers partner in rented accommodation. Has no income at all.
Are there even any benefits available to someone so young and totally dependant?

Do her parents get any benefits for her?

She may be able the claim the child tax credit and child benefit element of Universal Credit but if her parents get benefits for her they will have to stop their claim. When she is 18 she will be able to get the housing benefit element if she wants to move into her own property.

She will have to get a job eventually though, she won't be able to claim benefits forever. I have no qualifications and I have a job. She could use the time to try and study something she is interested in and maybe go to college.

Is the father present?

She’ll be able to make a claim for UC when she is either in the last 11 weeks of pregnancy (and has a MAT1B form) or has had the child. She may not be able to claim for a portion of the rent unless she is named as a tenant liable for rent. If her mum claims child benefit that will stop and so will any benefits she receives for her daughter. She may be able to apply for the Sure Start Maternity Grant and Healthy Start vouchers (this will be done online).

Why would she have no prospect of getting a job? You don’t need any qualifications to get some jobs and she can always use childcare (free nursery places etc) and work her way up in a company. I was a young mum and when I had my daughter I got a job working part time and took my then baby dd to nursery using 2 buses there and back everyday. It’s not easy at all but possible if someone wants to do it (I had no family help at all).

When she is 18 she will be entitled to all the usual benefits - universal credit, income support, housing benefit etc etc.

While living at home she will be entitled to child tax and child benefit. If she leaves, she can get a housing association/private property and receive full benefits including rent, income support, child tax and benefit (all rolled into universal credit now) The basic allowances are slightly reduced for younger people but overall she’ll be able to recieve the full range of benefits once her child is born. She can apply for a £500 Surestart grant now also.

Why no prospects of ever getting a job?

Why on earth can’t she get a job? There’s hundreds of thousands of jobs out there which don’t require qualifications.

Anxiety, depression and autism, she struggles to even leave the house.

Yes, there will be benefits available to her. She will most likely be able to claim a sure start maternity grant.
Talk to citizens advice and her midwife. My health visitor said there was some support I wasnt entitled to because I was over a certain age so she will probably be entitled to it.

She will have to grow up fast but her life isn't over. She could even return to education in the future, as lots of colleges have programs for people will no qualifications.

She won't get benefits whilst under 18 and living with her parents, but her parents May be able to claim something for her. She'll get child benefit afaik but not UC.

Are SS involved?

Possibly healthy start vouchers. The £500 sure start grant might not be paid until after she's had the baby. Talk to the midwife at booking in, HV and CAB.

she'll be eligible for the Healthy start vouchers towards milk fruit and veg too.

She didn't struggle to leave the house to find a boyfriend and get pregnant

Social worker, specialist midwife are involved yes.

Is continuing the pregnancy really in her best interests?

I know!!
Without sounding awful, when it suits she has anxiety, there is some personality disorder too I think, only diagnosed with autism in the last 18 months after not attending school for years and years.
I don’t know anything about the father except that he is 18.

As the child of this exact set of circumstances, and now grown with my own child, I'd ask her to consider whether having this child is really a good idea. My life has been so difficult in comparison to my peers and has lived with no support network for most of my life. Unless she has a really good family support network, which it doesn't sound as if there is, this child is going to have a tough time.

Probably not but I don’t think that it has crossed either her or her mother’s mind that not continuing the pregnancy is an option.

Her SW will support her to claim any benefits she is entitled to and put in place supports for her if needed once the baby arrives. Are the parents supportive and able to help her? Might they be able to raise the baby together without her moving out?

"Is continuing the pregnancy really in her best interests?"

Agreed - and is living a life potentially on the breadline, with a parent who has complex health needs in the best interests of the child? In my view, it is not in the best interests of mother or child.

Will she be allowed to keep it?

How has she not been in school since 13?

She is a very very “young” 17 year old, has no concept of money, relies totally on her mother for everything, can’t even make a sandwich for herself.
The mother is talking about being the “carer” for both.
She works full time, has moved away from all family and networks (moves home at least once a year, different partners so moves to the other end of the country to move in with them kind of thing) takes the daughter with her.
Her & her daughter have lived with my mother pretty much on and off all of the girls 17 years.
Just abandons her to go and work abroad for a year.

It’s an absolute mess.
17 year old will no way cope with pregnancy, birth or baby. Her mother can not afford to give up work to support them all, new partner will likely throw them out due to ongoing problems and my mum is now in no position to take them back in.

I can see hostels, hand to mouth, deprivation and a lifetime of suffering for them all.

It’s a mess. I’m trying to gather information that might help them in some way.

Just didn’t go to school.
Just stopped going. No one seemed to care or notice after the first year.
Changed schools but decided she didn’t like it there so just stopped going after about a week. Never stepped foot into a school since 13.