The Universal Credit Regulations 2013

Cases where the minimum age is 16

8.—(1) For the basic condition in section 4(1)(a) of the Act (at least 18 years old), the minimum age is 16 years old where a person—

(a) has limited capability for work;

(b) is awaiting an assessment under Part 5 to determine whether the person has limited capability for work and has a statement given by a registered medical practitioner in accordance with the Medical Evidence Regulations which provides that the person is not fit for work;

(c) has regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person;

(d) is responsible for a child;

(e) is a member of a couple the other member of which is responsible for a child or a qualifying young person (but only where the other member meets the basic conditions in section 4 of the Act);

(f) is pregnant, and it is 11 weeks or less before her expected week of confinement, or was pregnant and it is 15 weeks or less since the date of her confinement; or

(g) is without parental support (see paragraph (3)).

(2) Sub-paragraphs (c), (f) and (g) of paragraph (1) do not include any person who is a care leaver.

(3) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(g) a young person is without parental support where that person is not being looked after by a local authority and—

(a) has no parent;

(b) cannot live with their parents because—

(i) the person is estranged from them, or

(ii) there is a serious risk to the person’s physical or mental health, or that the person would suffer significant harm if the person lived with them; or

(c) is living away from their parents, and neither parent is able to support the person financially because that parent—

(i) has a physical or mental impairment,

(ii) is detained in custody pending trial or sentence upon conviction or under a sentence imposed by a court, or

(iii) is prohibited from entering or re-entering Great Britain.

(4) In this regulation—

“parent” includes any person acting in the place of a parent;

“care leaver” means—

(a)

in relation to England and Wales, an eligible child for the purposes of paragraph 19B of Schedule 2 to the Children Act 1989(1) or a relevant child for the purposes of section 23A of that Act;

(b)

in relation to Scotland, a person under the age of 18 to whom a local authority in Scotland is obliged to provide advice and assistance in terms of section 29(1) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and who, since reaching the age of 14, has been looked after by a local authority for a period of or periods totalling 13 weeks or more (excluding any period where the person has been placed with a member of their family); and

“confinement” means—

(a)

labour resulting in the birth of a living child; or

(b)

labour after 24 weeks of pregnancy resulting in the birth of a child whether alive or dead,

and where a woman’s labour begun on one day results in the birth of a child on another day she is to be taken to be confined on the date of the birth.

(1)

1989 c.41. Section 19B was inserted by section 1 of the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 (c.35). Section 23A was inserted by section 2 of that Act.