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Universal Credit for young people receiving education

17 mins read

This advice applies across the UK.

There are particular rules that prevent most young people in education from being able to get Universal Credit. Your child will face difficulties getting Universal Credit if the benefits system treats them as ‘receiving education’.

In this article

Introduction

There are rules that prevent most young people in education from being able to get Universal Credit. Your child will face difficulties getting Universal Credit if the benefits system treats them as “receiving education”.

As a result, most students in full-time advanced education won’t be able to get Universal Credit. Neither will most young people in full-time non-advanced education who haven’t yet reached the September after their 19th birthday. See below for information on who counts as ‘receiving education’.

There are some young people in education who can still get Universal Credit despite these rules. We explain them below. This includes some disabled students who remain in full-time non-advanced education beyond the August after their 19th birthday.

The government introduced the current rules on 15 December 2021. Before that date, the rules were more flexible and allowed larger numbers of disabled students to qualify.

Note: If your child does get Universal Credit in their own right, any benefits that you receive for them as a dependent child, such as Child Benefit or tax credits, will stop. Any child maintenance payments for them are also likely to stop.

Before claiming Universal Credit for a child aged 16-19 in education, get advice. Make sure that you will not be worse off as a household.

When does a Universal Credit claimant count as receiving education? 

The benefits system will treat son or daughter as “receiving education” if any one of the following apply to them: 

  • They are in full-time advanced education, such as a university course or NVQ/SVQ level 4 or above.
  • They are on another course for which a loan or grant is provided for maintenance.
  • They are a “qualifying young person”. This is someone who is both:
    • Aged between 16 and the 31 August after their 19th birthday.
    • In full-time non-advanced education (for example, a school or college course where child benefit is payable) on a course they accepted or enrolled onto before their 19th birthday.
  • They are on a course incompatible with any work-related requirements attached to their Universal Credit claim.

If your child counts as receiving education, they will find it difficult to claim Universal Credit.

When can a young person in education still get Universal Credit? 

There are three main groups of students who may still be able to get Universal Credit. These are:

  1. Certain groups of students who are exempt from the normal restrictions. This includes any student with a dependent child and some disabled students who meet specific tests.
  2. Part-time students.
  3. Some young people who remain in non-advanced education beyond the August after their 19th birthday.

Whether they qualify also depends on their individual circumstances. This includes what types of student income they have.

Let’s look at each of these three main groups in turn.

1. Exempt groups

There are certain specific groups who are exempt from these restrictions. They are eligible to apply for Universal Credit despite their course. This includes:

  • A student who is responsible for a child of their own.
  • A young person in non-advanced education aged under 21 (or who turned 21 on their course) and without parental support. This might mean that they have no parents. Or it might mean their parents cannot support them because they are disabled, in prison or refused entry to the UK.
  • Someone waiting to return to a course after taking time out due to illness or disability.
  • Disabled students who get Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the Scottish Child Disability Payment or the Scottish Adult Disability Payment. But this is only if they have also established a limited capability for work before they started receiving education. It is no longer possible to qualify as a disabled student by establishing a limited capability for work during your course.*

* A student might find themselves moving in-between two courses. For example, they may have abandoned their course, or the education setting may have dismissed them from their course. If they establish a limited capability for work in this time – it currently takes an average of five months for a work capability assessment to take place – they should be able to get Universal Credit when they subsequently start a new course. This is because they will have established their limited capability for work before they started receiving education on their new course.

2. Part-time students

Young people in part-time education who do not qualify for a maintenance grant or loan should not count as receiving education. This is the case for both advanced and non-advanced courses.

Whether your child’s course counts as part-time depends on the course they are on. For non-advanced education, a course is part-time if it involves 12 or fewer hours of study per week. Different rules can apply to home education. For advanced education, whether a course is part-time will vary depending on the particular course and its funding.

Part-time students might have trouble claiming Universal Credit if the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) believes their course is incompatible with any work-related conditions attached to their claim.

3. Young people who remain in full-time non-advanced education beyond the August after their 19th birthday

Someone in full-time non-advanced education who has reached the September after their 19th birthday should be able to claim Universal Credit. This could be a 19 year old approaching their 20th birthday or young disabled person in their 20s.

This is so long as the DWP doesn’t see their course as incompatible with any work-related conditions attached to their Universal Credit claim.

Course and claim incompatibility

Even if your child would otherwise be able to claim Universal Credit because they are in full-time non-advanced education and have reached the September after their 19th birthday, the DWP will refuse them Universal Credit if they believe that their attendance on the course is incompatible with any work-related conditions that have been attached to their Universal Credit claim.

Everyone who claims Universal Credit has a claimant commitment setting out any work-related conditions they need to meet. These conditions vary from person to person. Some claimants must look for work. Others may need to take part in training or other activities to make them more work-ready. Some people have no work-related conditions.

If the DWP attach work-related conditions to your child’s claim, there’s a risk they’ll argue that your child cannot meet these conditions at the same time as attending their course. Where a young person’s attendance on their course is incompatible with work-related conditions attached to their claim, they are treated as “receiving education” and refused Universal Credit.

Your son or daughter might be able to argue that the course and claim are not incompatible for two reasons.

1. Flexible course

The course may be flexible enough that the course provider is happy for them to have time away to undertake work-related activities.

This is more likely in life skills-type courses, where there may be no set curriculum to follow. Some educational providers may allow a young disabled person to take time away from their course to attend DWP-organised work-related activities.

Depending on your child’s disabilities, DWP staff may agree to apply only very minimal work-related requirements to their claim. They may even apply no requirements at all.

If they do, or the conditions they attach are minimal, you can argue that your child’s course isn’t incompatible with their claim.

There is a DWP medical assessment known as a work capability assessment. This can establish that your son or daughter has ‘limited capability for work and work related activity’ (LCWRA).

The DWP staff member dealing with your child’s claim is known as their work coach. They can use their discretion to switch off any work-related conditions pending the outcome of the work capability assessment.

If your child goes through the assessment and establishes LCWRA, they cannot have any work-related conditions attached to their Universal Credit claim. They will automatically be placed in the ‘no-conditionality group’ of Universal Credit claimants.

We recommend that you try to establish a LCWRA when your child turns 16. This is a good idea for two reasons:

  1. If your child stays in non-advanced education beyond the August after their 19th birthday, having a LCWRA rules out them having any work-related conditions that’d make their claim and their course incompatible.
  2. Establishing a LCWRA early (or even just establishing a limited capability for work) will help your child claim Universal Credit (assuming they get DLA or PIP or one of the Scottish equivalents) if they move from one course to another. This second point applies to students of any age and in education of any type – not simply those in non-advanced education who have passed the September after their 19th birthday.

Establishing a LCWRA in advance will not only help your child get Universal Credit in the above scenarios but it also means that once Universal Credit is awarded they will receive an additional payment called the LCWRA element from the start of their claim rather than having to wait 3 months for this extra amount to be added.

How do I establish a LCWRA in advance via a “credits-only” new-style ESA claim?

We recommend that when your child turns 16, you make a “credits-only” claim for new-style Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). This will force the DWP to carry out a work capability assessment. This could establish in advance that your child has a LCWRA.

If you simply ask the DWP to carry out a work capability assessment, they are likely to refuse. But you can make sure that a work capability assessment takes place by completing a claim for a different benefit known as new-style Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). You will need to submit fit notes from your child’s GP as part of this process.

As part of the new-style ESA claims process, the DWP should carry out the work capability assessment. Indeed, they must do this to decide whether your son or daughter qualifies for national insurance credits to protect their future entitlement to a state pension. They still need to carry out an assessment to decide if your child qualifies for national insurance credits, even if they refuse your child ESA.

Unless your child has worked and paid sufficient national insurance contributions in the last two years, the reality is that they won’t actually qualify for new-style ESA itself. Nevertheless, it is still very important that you help them to complete this claim. This is how you ensure they get a work capability assessment. This needs to take place if they are to establish a LCWRA.

Applying for ‘new style’ ESA with the sole intention of accessing a work capability assessment is known as making a ‘credits only’ claim for new style ESA. 

If the DWP agrees that your child does have a LCWRA, that decision will also be binding on Universal Credit.

Won’t a ‘credits-only’ claim for ESA bring my child benefit and tax credits to an end?

Making a ‘credits-only’ claim for new style ESA won’t impact any Child Benefit, tax credits or any other benefits you currently get for your son or daughter as a dependent child. This is because a ‘credits only’ claim won’t actually result in any ESA payments. It merely leads to a work capability assessment.

Some parents report DWP staff telling them that the rules prevent them from lodging a claim for new style ESA for their child while Child Benefit is still in payment. This is not true. Contact our free helpline for advice if the DWP refuses to allow you to complete a claim for new style ESA.  

How do I make a “credits only” claim for new style ESA?

A young person who has mental capacity can make an online claim from the GOV.UK website

If you are acting as an appointee for your child, you cannot make a claim on-line. Instead the DWP ask you to make a claim via the telephone on:

  • Telephone: 0800 0556688 (choose option 4).
  • Textphone: 0800 328 1344 (choose option 3).
  • Relay UK (if you cannot hear or speak on the phone): 18001 then 0800 0556688.
  • Video relay service for British Sign Language (BSL) users – check you can use this service.
  • Welsh language telephone: 0800 328 1744.

When you phone this number and choose option 4 you may have a long wait during which time a recorded message may say that you can make a claim more quickly on-line. This does not apply to appointees. An appointee cannot make a claim on behalf of their son or daughter on-line and must instead make a claim using the telephone.

Complaining about a failure to process a ‘credits only’ claim for new style Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

Some parents describe being talked out of making a claim for new-style ESA. Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) staff might tell you that there is no point in making a claim for new-style ESA as your child won’t get this benefit.

Explain that you know they will not get new-style ESA itself. Instead, you are making a ‘credits only’ claim in order to protect their national insurance record. You have a right to do this under regulation 8B(1) of the Social Security (Credits) Regulations 1975.

In some cases, DWP staff have refused to help parents lodge a claim for new style ESA. They have claimed it is a waste of time and/or staff resources. They have refused to send the parents a link to the electronic claim form needed to complete a claim.

If this happens to you, try to remain calm and polite. Ask for the name of the worker who is refusing to facilitate a claim. Take a record of their name and the date and time of your call. Ask them for the details of where you should send a complaint to. Then seek further advice from the Contact Helpline or from a local benefits advice service in your area.

What should happen after I lodge a “credits only” claim for new-style ESA?

Once you’ve lodged a claim for new-style ESA, you’ll get a decision telling you that your child does not qualify for ESA. Don’t be worried by this. A refusal is what you are expecting. Remember: you are making a “credits only” claim not to actually get ESA, but simply to trigger a work capability assessment.

Once they’ve sent you the decision refusing ESA, the DWP should then start the process of organising a work capability assessment. They should send you a work capability questionnaire to complete. If you still haven’t received a questionnaire within a couple of weeks, phone the number on your ESA letter. Ask them to confirm that they intend to organise a work capability assessment and how long this is likely to take. If they tell you that they won’t carry out an assessment, seek urgent advice.

Once you receive the questionnaire, complete and return it. You can include any other supportive evidence you have. The DWP may decide to make a decision about your child’s capability for work based solely on the paperwork. Or they may ask your child to have a face-to-face consultation with a health professional.

It can take several months for them to make a decision on your child’s capability for work. Eventually they should contact you to confirm their decision. If they accept that your child has a LCWRA, this decision will also be binding on Universal Credit when they make a claim for Universal Credit at a later date.

Getting Universal Credit and other help with education costs in England

Once your child gets Universal Credit, they may also qualify for other help with education costs.

A young person aged 16-18 in non-advanced education, who gets both Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment, is eligible to apply to their school or college for a vulnerable bursary of up to £1,200 per year under the 16-18 Bursary Scheme. Whether they get a bursary and how much may depend on the extra costs your child incurs in attending education.

A young person who qualifies for Universal Credit and who has no earnings (or earnings below certain levels) is eligible for free school meals. They are also eligible for free lunches in further education placements. This normally applies up until the age of 18. This extends to 19-year-olds if they are completing a course they started before their 19th birthday. It also extends up to age 25 where a Universal Credit recipient has an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan or a Learning Difficulty Assessment.

What happens to Child Benefit and other financial support if your child gets Universal Credit

If your child starts to receive Universal Credit in their own right as an adult this means that you are no longer entitled to any payments for them as a dependant child. This means that any child benefit that you receive for them will have to stop, as will any tax credits payments or universal credit payments for them as a child if these haven’t already ended

If you are still getting child maintenance payments for your son or daughter these are also likely to stop as your child can’t be treated as a qualifying child for child support purposes if they are receiving Universal Credit in their own right.

Because of this it is a good idea to seek advice about whether a claim for Universal Credit by your child is in your interests taking into account what they are likely to gain and what you may potentially lose.

Universal Credit and charging for social care

If your child is 18 or over and gets practical help from social services, the local authority might check whether they should pay towards the cost. They do this by carrying out a financial assessment.  

If your child only gets PIP, their income will probably be too low to contribute to social care costs. However, once your child gets Universal Credit this might change. Combined PIP and Universal Credit might mean your child will need to pay towards care costs.. This is particularly likely if your child starts to get the extra LCWRA element in Universal Credit. Getting the LCWRA element can more than double the amount of Universal Credit received.   

The local authority is likely to say that you must tell them if your child’s income changes. This means that iIf your child had a financial assessment before getting Universal Credit, or before getting the LCWRA element, you’ll need to report this to social services. The local authority would then reassess their  income. 

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