Is there a minimum age for a non resident carer for UC ?

Hello,

wonder can someone help with if a 16 year old can be accepted as non resident carer ? 

They are living with one parent who gets CHB for them, but is required to provide overnight care for other parent due to fits who lives elsewhere.

From what i can see the regs mention the carer as a person only,so is a qualifying young person which i believe our 16 year old to be a person for the purposes of schedule 4 ?

I cant see why not or am I missing something ?

Can anybody please advise ?

Thanks and appreciation in advance for your time

Carer’s Allowance:

Your eligibility

All of the following must apply:

you’re 16 or over
you spend at least 35 hours a week caring for someone
you’ve been in England, Scotland or Wales for at least 2 of the last 3 years (this does not apply if you’re a refugee or have humanitarian protection status)
you normally live in England, Scotland or Wales, or you live abroad as a member of the armed forces (you might still be eligible if you’re moving to or already living in an EEA country or Switzerland)
you’re not in full-time education
you’re not studying for 21 hours a week or more
you’re not subject to immigration control
your earnings are £151 or less a week after tax, National Insurance and expenses

Thanks for your response UB40 ,

i am really wondering if someone only 16 years old can be accepted as the person providing non resident care to someone getting daily living PIP for the purposes of the person being cared for being allowed an additional bedroom for the UC size criteria.

I don’t think they would also need to be claiming Carers Allowance themselves but i take your point that if they are in FT education which they are, they couldn’t get CA if they met all of the other conditions which i believe they do.

my worry is as they are a “qualifying young person” in legislation does that translate to “person” as in the regs or would they need to not be a QYP anymore to be just a person ?

There is an interesting discussion here regarding overnight care and the Bedroom Tax.
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/19729/#93016

The Regs don’t set any minimum (or maximum) age for the non-resident carer(s) and I don’t see any basis for implying one in.

I am not sure I quite follow how whether the carer is a QYP would be relevant.

At a certain point it becomes an evidential question. Your 5-year-old nephew or 93-year-old mum are probably not providing you with care to the required extent.

I don’t see what the issue would be with a 16-year-old. Plenty of teenagers do provide care for their parents (or others).

I think there is perhaps an uncharitable view that the situation you describe could be more to do with maintaining a ‘shared parenting’ arrangement and less to do with the child providing care - so it may be that the case attracts some extra scrutiny on that basis - but I don’t see what the problem is in principle.