All of Dorset’s Former Relevant Care Leavers aged 18 to 21 years could receive the following financial support, talk to your personal adviser for help to claim.
You can get:
A Personal Budget of £700 to use with your Personal Adviser’s support before you are 25 years old.
This can pay for things like:
If you need help with money or food, we can help you get a food bank voucher. We can give you details of how to contact the local assistance fund.
Rent in advance and rent deposit to help you secure your stable home. We can only help with a rent in advance, deposit and fees if your rent is affordable to you. We can only do this once.
If you are:
We can support you financially with a contribution towards your rent and support costs.
There are different options which could be available to you. From 18 years you will pay your rent and household bills. If you are claiming benefits, you can claim the one-bedroom local housing allowance (LHA) rate to help you with your rent.
Storage of your personal belongings for up to 3 months if needed.
Care leaver rent guarantor scheme for your privately rented home. We can act as a corporate rent guarantor for you for up to 12 months.
We may also consider providing 6 or 12 month's rent up front. This would be paid directly to a landlord or letting agent. This will be a one off payment. It is a legally binding arrangement that the landlord or letting agent holds as security against the need for you to continue to pay your rent.
Setting up Home Grant of at least £2000 ( £3000 if you were 18 after April 2023) to be used before you are 25 years old.
New home parcel when you move into your first home.
This will include:
Removal costs and moving boxes for when you need to move home.
As a Dorset Care Leaver living in Dorset (but not in the BCP authority) and on your own you are exempt from paying council tax until you are 25 years old. If you live in Dorset with someone else, then your council tax bill will be reduced by 25%. If you live outside of Dorset and have to pay council tax, we may be able to help you financially.
Water bills
Wessex Water give care leavers 90% discount on their water and sewerage bills.
You can get:
If you are:
we can give you an Apprenticeship Bursary of £200 per month towards your living costs. We can also give you a contribution of up to £100 per month towards travel costs for the first year of your apprenticeship.
If you are studying in further education (college) you could be entitled to a 16 to19 bursary for students in vulnerable groups of up to £1200.
If you are studying at university, we can give you a Higher Education Bursary of £2000. We pay this over the duration of your course. This is £3000 when living in London. Your Personal Adviser will pay you this in annual instalments.
If you are studying an Open University course, you could receive a pro rata payment of the Higher Education Bursary. The amount of you get will depend on what credits you are studying.
In the summer holiday between each year of your university course, we can give you up to 12 weeks support of up to £100 per week towards securing holiday accommodation.
When you graduate from university, we want to celebrate with you and will give you a graduation gift of £50.
There are also some local charities which offer financial support if you need extra help. These include:
There are also some National Charities which may offer financial support. These include:
This fund is available if you are:
The Fund can help with vouchers to buy:
Find out more on the Emergency Local Assistance Fund page.
At 18 you may be able to claim certain benefits or tax credits (government payments) if you are:
Find more information on benefits calculators.
You might also be able to claim other health benefits because of a disability or health condition.
