Care Leaver Payment – Guidance for Recipients

8. What happens if I don’t get the payment?

All young people who are looked after on or after their 16^th birthday and who leave care or continuing care after 1^st April 2026, will get the payment.

If your local authority has told you that you are not entitled to the payment, this may be because you do not fit this criteria (for example, maybe you left care or continuing care before 1^st April 2026, or you were not looked after by a local authority on your 16^th birthday). The local authority will explain to you, either via email or letter, why you will not get the payment.

If you do not get the payment, but you think that the local authority was wrong in making their decision not to give you the payment:

a. You can ask the local authority to look at your records again. This is called asking for a ‘review’.

b. You have 12 months to ask for this review from the date the local authority sent you its decision not to give you the payment.

c. The local authority must check its information (and can ask for more information to help it make a decision in the review) and let you know their decision.

d. If the local authority still thinks that you are not eligible, they must explain why.

If you have not heard anything about the payment:

a. You can ask any local authority to check if you should have received the payment. It is helpful to ask the local authority that you think last looked after you because it will be a quicker process for you to find out if you should get the payment. If you do not know which local authority looked after you, you can ask any local authority to check if you should have received the payment.

b. The local authority you ask will check with you if it is ok that they contact other local authorities, if they need to, to find out if you should have received the payment.

c. The local authority might ask you for further information to understand if you should have received the payment or not.

d. If you should have received the payment, the local authority that you were last looked after by will speak with you about how you will get it.