Can anyone please help with this

Client is young person aged 18 estranged from parents etc

no question they should be entitled but Jobcentre plus say they won't pay benefit without a contract from landlord to prove they are living independently. Lasndlords and HPU say without benefit we aint housing you.

This is a recent development and I've not heard of it before.

Has anyone else had such an experience and, if so, how did you get around it.

Do they have a Connexions worker who could provide the information and corroboration requested by the JCP? - however also note the guidance from (admittedly the DWP's own January, I think, Income Support bulletin re young people and estrangement that -

'The young person should be believed unless their statement is itself contradictory or inherently improbable.'

Thanks for this, unfortunately it's a colleague at Connexions who is having the problem

it appears that Jobcentre plus have recently changed their policy and are now insisting on sight of a Housing contract.

I suspect this may be a local issue. The DWP's guidance to its own staff on estrangement makes no reference to a housing contract.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/jsa_for_16-17year_olds.pdf

Is young person vulnerable, in priority need? When did he/she turn 18 and did the HPU fail to assist prior to 18th birthday? Has there been any social services involvement in the past?

Where is young person staying now? Surely this should help to establish estrangement.

If it appears that the applicant may be homeless and in priority need, duty to provide interim accommodation under s188 Housing Act 1996. This is a low threshold and duty cannot be deferred because of a lack of benefits.