Income support / benefits?

[doubleshift]

I know a you lad - 18 just finished college - he lives with his Mum who has lived them into her BFs house in the middle of nowhere in Devon so v.rural. He is completely dependent on the Mum to drive him anywhere. He’s got a zero hours contract and gets a couple of hours work at a local pub if he can get a lift.
He’s stuck - he can’t earn proper money without transport but hasn’t got money to learn to drive and parents don’t help.

can he claim any kind of support to help him start to set himself up as an adult?

If he’s happy enough to do hospitality work I’d consider a live in job at a big hotel. I’m way up in Scotland but it’s common enough you can normally get an en-suite room and three meals a day for £70 a week. Plenty of hours available, you could save 2k a month Do it for a year and contemplate uni/ driving licence/ next steps.

He would be entitled to Universal Credit on the months were he doesn't get much/any work. They may be able to help him find more stable employment or even get him a bike!

Universal credit, they might fund him a bike they wouldnt do driving lessons though.

Is there a ‘community’ driving school near you who do discounted lessons for those on benefits?

Thanks. So would he apply for universal credit online? This week he has had 3 washing up shifts but it’s like 9 hours at min wage. i feel so upset for him that his parents are so crap.

Why do you think his parents are crap?

https://www.traveldevon.info/accessibility/community-transport/wheels-2-work/

He could hire a scooter.

For Gods sake why does an able bodied 18 year old man need benefits? This is utterly ridiculous.

What do you suggest he does to get the money he needs to learn to drive/get a car to enable him to work, or so that he can find a new job and has the money immediately available for a
flatshare deposit?

If he had a magic money tree OP probably wouldn’t have started this thread.

I don’t need to suggest anything, it’s not the state’s problem. He’s a grown man and he can fund his own driving lessons. The entitlement is honestly insane.

Under 25s universal credit is just £316 it tapers down so for every £1 earned they’d knock 55p off, so if earning £90 a week it’d probably be an extra £30 a week. Snything over £575 a month and they eouldnt be eligible.

Well he can’t magic the money out of nowhere, a few months of universal credit and then straight into a reliable full time job (with the associated tax and NI to pay) will be far better for the state than someone hardly economically active for months and months on end but has never claimed universal credit.

Not to mention possible costs to the NHS due to mental ill health if he’s stuck at home with no real job and no end in sight.

Edit to add: have you never had anything funded by the state that’s not their problem? Haven’t had treatment on the NHS, a state school for your children, child benefit, funded childcare hours etc? The state funds a lot of things that isn’t their problem. It’s probably wouldn’t be the states problem if your house was on fire but they’d still send a fire engine if you called 999.

So £90? He can save up and get his cbt for a low powered motorcycle far quicker than a driving licence. Tell him to connect with riders in the area as many will have spare (aka they have got too far for) kit they may be willing to pass on to keep him safe. Second hand 125 bikes are not that expensive

What would happen if my car broke down, and I couldn’t afford the £500 to fix it? UC wouldn’t step in then. An able bodied 18 year old claiming benefits for driving lessons is utterly mad and the reason our welfare state is about to be extinguished by Reform on the alter of its unaffordability.

Bingo!

If you were entitled to universal credit you’d receive it, and could spend it on fixing your car if you so wanted.

Sounds like this lad is entitled so why shouldn’t he claim? He’s not entitled because he needs driving lessons, he’s entitled because he doesn’t have any money and is limited in what he can earn.

He shouldn’t be entitled! He should save up and pay for his lessons himself. This ‘everyone should be entitled to everything, why can’t they have it..’ is just so childish and while 1 person won’t bankrupt the country, 2 million of them doing the same thing would.

So instead of getting a bit of help to be economically active he should stay hardly working for months in order to save up? He wouldn’t be entitled to much universal credit and it’d be paid back with a couple of months tax.

What does the state gain by saving on benefits but leaving someone economically inactive?

You have children, I’m going to assume you didn’t use the NHS for your maternity care/your children’s births, you don’t claim child benefit for them or have any childcare funding, and they don’t attend state schools?

I second the suggestion of this lad doing his CBT and picking up a cheap 2nd hand motorcycle/moped. It will be so much cheaper than running a car. As far as I know, there is a huge waiting list of people wanting to do their driving test. CBT will be so much quicker.

He will also be entitled to Universal Credit so he absolutely should apply for that too. It will give him some extra money, however the Job Centre will pressure him to find more work but they can help to a point with that.

Sorry to have derailed your thread OP.

Anyway I wonder if he might be better off saving for a deposit, finding a job, and using that deposit on a flatshare? Does he have friends and a social life where he is now or completely dependant on mum and stepdad? Might be better for him long term to move out sooner if he can.

Why doesn’t he save himself to either move closer to his job, or pay for driving lessons? I repeat - state benefits are supposed to be when there is no other alternative, not because an able bodied 18 year old wants some extra cash for driving lessons. It’s an absolute disgrace and I bet few of the people encouraging it here work full time themselves. They never do.

Yes, you apply online and then have an appointment at the Job Centre for ID checks etc and then seeing as he will be in the group looking for work, then he would have regular appointments there too. He wont get any money for 5 weeks though.

https://www.universal-credit.service.gov.uk/start

Live in carers earn approximately £1000 a week and you don't need any qualifications for that. So the logical answer is to get a job that provides accommodation - there are thousands of them. Another example is working in a boarding school as a house-keeper or similar.

I notice you ignored my question I do work full time, and have never claimed benefits myself, although my daughter did attend state school and we all use the NHS. Although you can work full time and claim universal credit, or work part time and not be entitled to it so not sure what working hours has got to do with the price of fish.

Anyway OP I’ll stop derailing your thread now, I’m glad this lad has someone like you around to help him and posters like this shouldn’t dissuade you from supporting him in accessing any help he is entitled to. Citizens Advice Bureau are also great for benefits help and may be able to point him in the direction of local schemes like a pp linked.

This would be a really good option. I live in another part of the country but we have a similar scheme here. It's a way of addressing the issue of rural isolation and lack of transport so that people can access work or training.