What am I entitled to as a care leaver?

By the Milestone Young People practice team. Updated August 2026 · Reviewed August 2026. Figures below are the 2025/26 England position; where an amount is set locally we say so. Always check your own council’s Local Offer for Care Leavers for the exact amounts and any extra local support.

If you were in care in England, you have real, named entitlements as you move into adult life — money to set up a home, an exemption from council tax to age 25, a higher rate of housing help, education bursaries worth thousands, and a Personal Adviser whose job is to help you claim all of it. Most young people never receive everything they are owed, usually because no one told them it existed. This page tells you.

The 2026 entitlements table

These are the headline figures for care leavers in England in the 2025/26 year. Where a figure is a government-recommended minimum or a discretionary local scheme, that is noted — because it means your council may pay more, and occasionally less.

Sources: gov.uk care-leaver guidance and the underpinning legislation, confirmed August 2026. Amounts shown are the England 2025/26 position; discretionary and locally-set figures are flagged in the table.

Who counts as a care leaver?

Whether you are a “care leaver” — and which entitlements you get — depends on how long you were in care and how old you were. The law (the Children Act 1989, as amended by the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000) sets out four categories. Your social worker or Personal Adviser can confirm which one applies to you.

If you are a former relevant care leaver, you are entitled to a Personal Adviser and a reviewed Pathway Plan to 25, and to all the money and housing help below. If you are a qualifying care leaver your council owes you less automatically — but many still offer the same support, so always ask.

How much is the Setting Up Home Allowance?

The Setting Up Home Allowance — sometimes called the Leaving Care Grant — is a minimum of £3,000. The government raised the recommended minimum from £2,000 to £3,000 on 1 April 2023. It is meant to pay for the things that turn an empty flat into a home: a bed, a cooker, a fridge, a washing machine, kitchen basics, curtains and flooring.

Because the amount is set by each council, some pay more than £3,000 and a small number still pay less. You do not usually get it as one cash lump sum — your Personal Adviser will help you spend it against a list of what you need, sometimes buying items directly. Ask early, keep a list, and do not let the money go unclaimed: it is one of the most commonly missed entitlements.

Are care leavers exempt from council tax?

In almost every council in England, care leavers get a 100% council tax exemption up to age 25. This is not a single national law — it is a discretionary scheme each council chooses to adopt — but it is now so widespread that you should assume you qualify and ask if it has not been applied.

The catch is that it is often not automatic. The council’s tax office may not know you are a care leaver unless someone tells them. Ask your Personal Adviser to write to the council tax team, or contact them yourself, and quote your care-leaver status. If you live in shared or supported accommodation your rent arrangement may already cover this — but if you hold your own tenancy, this exemption can be worth well over £1,000 a year.

What is the Shared Accommodation Rate exemption?

Most single people under 35 can only claim housing help at the low Shared Accommodation Rate (SAR) — the rate for a room in a shared house. Care leavers are exempt from the SAR until age 25, which means you can claim the higher one-bedroom rate for self-contained accommodation. That is a meaningful uplift in the rent your Housing Benefit or Universal Credit housing element will cover.

This exemption comes from the Housing Benefit and Universal Credit (Care Leavers and Homeless) (Amendment) Regulations 2021, in force since 31 May 2021. Like council tax, it is not automatic — you must self-claim by identifying yourself as a care leaver on your Universal Credit journal or Housing Benefit claim. If you are unsure whether it has been applied, ask your Personal Adviser to check the rate against the higher one-bedroom figure for your area.

What education and training support can I get?

Care leavers get some of the most generous education support available, and the amounts stack. If you are studying or training, you should be claiming from this list:

• 16–19 Bursary — up to £1,200 a year. A vulnerable-student bursary paid through your college or sixth form from the 16–19 Bursary Fund, to help with travel, equipment, books and course costs.
• Higher Education Bursary — £2,000 one-off. Your council must pay this to eligible care leavers who go on to university or higher education. It is a duty, not a favour — make sure your leaving-care team knows your plans early.
• Care Leavers Bursary — £1,000 a year. New from September 2025, paid through student finance to eligible full-time undergraduate care-experienced students. It is on top of the £2,000 council bursary, not instead of it.
• Apprenticeship Bursary — £3,000. For apprenticeships started on or after 1 August 2023, paid in three £1,000 instalments across the first year.

Alongside the cash, many universities and colleges offer care leavers extra help — year-round accommodation, fee waivers, hardship funds and a named contact. Ask the institution’s student support team what its care-leaver package includes, and ask your Personal Adviser to help you apply for everything at once.

What is a Personal Adviser, and how long do I get one?

A Personal Adviser (PA) is a named worker whose job is to help you plan your move into adult life and make sure you actually get what you are owed. You are entitled to a PA up to age 25, whether or not you are in education or training — that extension to 25 came in through section 3 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017.

Your PA keeps your Pathway Plan under review (at least every six months), stays in touch, and coordinates the support around you — housing, money, health, education and work. If you have drifted out of contact with your leaving-care team, you have the right to ask for your PA back up to 25. Use them: a good PA is the single best route to claiming everything on this page.

Where will I live — and what are my housing rights?

Leaving care does not mean leaving with a bin bag and no plan. Depending on your situation you might stay with a former foster carer, move into supported accommodation, or take on your own tenancy with support. Two schemes protect the relationships that help you settle:

• Staying Put lets a young person remain living with their former foster carer after 18, usually to 21 (Children and Families Act 2014, s98).
• Staying Close gives you continued trusted-adult support and help with accommodation after you leave residential or supported accommodation. It has just become a statutory duty: the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 (which received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026) inserts a new Staying Close duty at section 23CZA of the Children Act 1989, so councils must assess whether you need this support up to 25 and provide it where you do. (Individual parts of the 2026 Act commence on dates set by regulations — ask your PA whether it is in force in your area yet.)

The same 2026 Act also strengthens your position if a placement breaks down: under its homelessness provisions, care leavers are not to be treated as having made themselves intentionally homeless, which makes it harder for a council to refuse to rehouse you. If you become homeless, tell your PA and your council’s housing team straight away and say you are a care leaver.

What if I move to a different area?

You keep your care-leaver entitlements even if you move away from the council that looked after you. That council — your “responsible authority” — stays responsible for your Personal Adviser, your Pathway Plan and your leaving-care money wherever in England you live. And when it comes to social housing or homelessness help, care leavers are generally treated as having a local connection to both the area they now live in and the area of the council that looked after them, so a lack of local connection should not be used to turn you away.

How do I actually claim all of this?

The hardest part is rarely eligibility — it is knowing the entitlement exists and asking for it. Work through this with your Personal Adviser:

1. Read your council’s Local Offer. Every council must publish a Local Offer for Care Leavers listing exactly what it provides — the amounts, the extras and who to contact. The Children and Social Work Act 2017 (s2) requires it, and the 2026 Act strengthens what must be in it.
2. Run the money check. Ask: is my Setting Up Home Allowance claimed? Am I council-tax exempt? Is my rent at the higher one-bedroom rate (SAR exemption applied)? Are my bursaries in payment? Is my Universal Credit correct?
3. Get it in writing. Ask for decisions and amounts in writing so nothing gets lost when staff change.
4. Chase the discretionary ones. Council tax and the SAR exemption are the two most often missed because they are not automatic — make sure someone has actively claimed them for you.