Use this page to learn about the support you can get as an Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Young Person (UASC).
If you are a young person who has come to the UK without a parent or anyone who is able to care for you legally you will be known as an Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Child, where a Local Authority (in this case B&NES) becomes responsible for your care and support.
When you enter early adulthood (age 18) the Care Experienced Team will support you. There are a lot of things that may feel uncertain for you, and we will do our best to help you work through this and explain as best we can what is happening at different stages of you seeking asylum in the UK.
For general assistance, follow the Home Office Immigration process.
You will need a solicitor to make a claim for asylum to the Home Office. A solicitor will need to offer you legal advice. Your social worker (SW) and/or Personal Advisor will support you to access legal support.
It is important to know that your SW/PA are not responsible for the decisions that are made by the Home Office about whether you are able to stay in the UK or not.
This means we will think about all possible outcomes of your asylum claim. This is to ensure you are clear about what may happen depending on what decisions the Home Office make. The outcomes that need to be considered across different areas of life are:
- Supporting you whilst your claim progresses, or through an appeal process (no final decision made)
- Supporting you if you are awarded ‘leave to remain’ in the UK
- Supporting you to return to your country of origin if your appeal rights are exhausted and solicitors say there are no further grounds for a new claim
We will provide maintenance (in line with Universal Credit rate) until you have ‘recourse to public funds’ (which means you are allowed to apply for Universal Credit). If you do not get recourse to public funds, see offer below.
You will be supported to explore your options; these options will be dependent on your immigration status. See EET section.
If you have been granted Leave to Remain and therefore have recourse to public funds, we will support a move on plan (from residential or 16+ provision) into alternative accommodation (see accommodation section 2 of the Local Offer).
Once you have your Bio-metrics card we will support you to move on within 28 days. If you have not been granted Leave to Remain, then your options will be limited.
Whilst your claim is being processed by the Home Office, we will continue to pay for your accommodation in the area you are/have been living (whilst under 18), or we could support you to move closer to BANES. We will continue to discuss your housing options with you.
We will ensure you have your ARC card. Once you have Leave to Remain you will receive your Bio-metric card from the Home Office. We will contribute £1,000 towards Citizenship costs. We will fund your first UK Passport and provisional UK Driving Licence.
We can fund one travel document.
We will ensure that you have translated information, into your preferred language to ensure you can easily read plans, options, and decisions.
If you are between 18 and 21 years of age, we will prioritise your care experience status as a ‘Former Relevant’ care leaver. If you have used all of your appeal options you are classed as ‘Appeal Rights Exhausted’ and under the age of 21, we will continue to support you with accommodation and a personal living allowance (in line with the Universal Credit rate).
If you are approaching 21, or are already over 21 and are classed as ‘ARE’, the support could stop and we may need to serve 3 months’ notice in relation to providing your accommodation and personal living allowance.
This will be dependent on whether you are in any programme of education, as agreed as part of your Pathway Plan. If you aren’t, you will be supported to apply for asylum support via the Home Office.
We can support you to think about returning to your country of origin and liaise with the Home Office to help with this process.