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Checking care leaver status
For the purposes of Job Start Payment, a care leaver is a person who stopped being looked after by a local authority on, or after, their 16th birthday. They must have left care in order to be a care leaver.
This could have been in:
- a foster placement
- a residential placement
- a secure placement
- a formal kinship care placement
If a client tells us that they left care before they were 16 years old, then they are not able to apply for Job Start Payment as a care leaver.
Guidance on care leaver status
Care leaver benefits
The client must be getting one of these benefits on the day of their job offer:
- Universal Credit
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), not contribution-based JSA
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), not contribution-based ESA
Care leaver earnings information
Care leavers must be out of paid work on the day of their job offer and have no earnings on that date.
When care leavers do not need to send evidence
In most cases, where a client tells us they’re a care leaver they usually also tell us:
- that they’ve been out of paid work for six months or more
- they’ve been on a qualifying benefit for six months or more
If the client meets both these conditions they can get Job Start Payment and their verification item for care leavers will be stopped in the system.
They do not need to fill out a care leaver evidence form. An evidence notification will still be created on the system to ask for other evidence e.g. job offer.
If the client meets the conditions of Job Start Payment with their earnings and benefits, do not ask them to prove their status as a care leaver. You must not send out the care leaver evidence form.