Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has considered extending eligibility for (a) Child Benefit and (b) the child element of Universal Credit to families of 16 to19 year-olds undertaking apprenticeships, in order to remove financial disincentives to vocational training.

When a young person becomes an apprentice, they are in work and no longer regarded as a child or qualifying young person for Child Benefit or Universal Credit child element purposes, even though they might still live with their parents or guardians.

Education or training provided by means of a contract of employment (which includes apprenticeships) does not count as education or training for the purposes of satisfying the definition of a qualifying young person. The parent or guardian will no longer be entitled to Child Benefit or Universal Credit child element for the young person in these circumstances.

In the case of waged apprentices under the age of 19, employers are required to pay a minimum wage of £7.55 an hour, and many tend to pay more as young people develop their skills. A young person working 35 hours a week on a waged apprenticeship should therefore earn no less than £264.25 each week.

Depending on age and the number of hours undertaken on the apprenticeship, the young person may be able to claim Universal Credit in their own right.