www.iva.co.uk

HI been told my 16yr old can support himself cause he aint going to college loss of tax credits and chb.He will be took out of expenditure so it looks like I can afford payments.I cant make payments anymore cause I am down £400 a month and ex will give me money so I can keep roof over sons head until he is 18 and gets a job.Feel like im hitting my head off a brick wall how can creditors say a 16yr old can support themselves??

I got told the same thing, they do not realise that 16-18 year olds cannot claim JSA until they are 18 so are reliant upon us for everything.

You cannot be expected to throw your son out so speak to your IP. Creditors are not actually quite fair if given proper explanations so call a variation to get the payments to an affordable level.

Hi

You need an allowance in your expenditure so that you can support your son, speak with your IP

Regards

I thought 16 year olds had to stay in some form of education/apprenticeship until 18 now & so would remain a dependant?

That comes in from this next year dancer

The.GOV.UK website states that "you must stay in some form of education or training until your 18th birthday if you were born on or after 1 September 1997" so anyone that is currently 16 has to be in education or training (my son's friend was 17 yesterday & this applies to him & all his classmates!)

If he is not in college then he should be working. I was working at 14 and had three jobs when I was 16 as well as studying for my A levels (and getting straight As). IVAs work that if a child is in full time education and under 19 they are a dependent, if not they are a non-dependent and yes should support themselves at least to the extent of being able to buy their own food and clothing and pay for their own phone bills and social life (and car if they have one when they turn 17).

Not sure how old you are Lou3 but unfortunately it's not that easy to find a job these days - not all students are capable of straight A's . My daughter works 2 days a week & would love to find more work but despite sending several job applications each week they amount to nothing.

I am 27 and have never been out of work more than a month. I have been working full time since I was 18. Jobs are only hard to come by if you are fussy what you take or you have a poor CV or attitude at interview. A poor CV can be easily fixed if you use the job centre services available.
"Several" job applications doesn't really tell me much. The last time I was made redundant (six months ago) I applied for 40 positions a week. After two weeks the interviews started to come in and after three I was gainfully employed full time again.

During the three weeks I was not employed full time I did agency work, which was literally a walk into the agency office, sign a few forms and start taking assignments.

Well done on your employment history. You obviously see things in 'black & white' when it comes to job applications/interviews but it's not that simple for everyone (& no doubt things have changed since you left school 9 years ago).
Also a lot easier to be 'righteous' when you have straight A's & can drive or 'walk' into an Agency - not so easy with 'B's', 'C's' & 'D's' when you don't drive or live on a bus route so please don't assume that those who don't walk out of one job into another aren't trying their best to find employment.

If a 16 year old is not in college (& therefore not a dependant) or working, how do you propose that they support themselves, buying food, clothing, paying phone bills etc???????

There are lots of schemes to help people get to work, including cycle to work schemes and moped schemes. Lack of transport should not be used as excuse to hold yourself back. Anyone with a bright and friendly personality can sling burgers in macdonalds. I did it full time whilst also studying full time at university. School grades are largely irrelevant when looking for jobs in my experience. I have been in work places where people who barely scraped their C in GSCE English (and some who didnt even manage that) have been perfectly good at their jobs and know people younger than me with no qualifications at all who have worked constantly since leaving school. Yes they clean toilets, but its good honest work and nothing to be sniffed at.

Why are they not working? even if they cannot get a full time job right away they can cut lawns, wash cars, babysit, walk dogs etc etc.