Child benefit after 16
From HE Examinations
The following information is correct as of the end of May 2009.
Until recently, being over 16 and taking any university-level study meant a loss of eligibility for Child Benefit. The good news is that this has now changed. Thanks to Doreen of Schoolhouse for her efforts in ensuring that the new ruling has not excluded home-educated teens.
Very briefly: an EHEer over 16 (who was EHEing under 16) remains eligible for Child Benefit when registered for an OU course as long as the OU course is supplementary to the home education. That is, the home education must continue to be full-time (defined as 'an average of more than 12 hours a week in term time'). The hours of home education must be more than the hours of OU study.
Detail: Provided an over 16yo young person is in full time further/non-advanced education and the OU course is supplementary to that then Child Benefit will continue. Full time means that an average of more than 12 hours a week in term time is spent on: tuition, practical work, supervised study, taking exams. In school, this is likely to mean pupils doing GCSEs/AS/A2 for most of their attendance and perhaps a couple of hours on OU work.
Home-educated young people are looked at on a case-by-case basis. For CB to continue, the EHE provision must be full time at a non-advanced/FE level and significantly more than the number of hours spent on the OU course. The full-time further/non-advanced education does not have to include studying a formal course (e.g. GCSE or A level) nor does it have to include taking exams but it must constitute a suitable education. For example, the young person need not be studying GCSE English but may be learning English and communication skills in other ways; they need not be doing GCSE home economics but may be learning to cook and keeping a vegetable patch.
The contact at FTES (in the Child Benefit office) says that if phoning the Child Benefit helpline on any matter concerning home-educated young people, parents should insist on the enquiry being forwarded to FTES. All written enquiries should have FAO FTES as they are the only ones who know about home education and Child Benefit.
