Information about turning 21-25

Choices you have now

When you turn 21, you have a few different options. If you are still working on something with your Personal Adviser, like housing, or building your network, then you can choose to keep working with them. In terms of their support to you, nothing will change. What does change, however, is that there is no finance directly from Next Steps that can be accessed. Wider offers like council tax and your travel pass still apply, even if you close to us, however money for things like education equipment does not. We will, however, support you to access other sources of support such as foodbanks if you need this.

If you feel you no longer need your Personal Adviser, or we have been unable to contact you for some time, then you can step down to a duty service. This means you won't have an allocated worker, however you can still call our duty line any time and, if you just want support with a short-term issue, like a new housing application, we will allocate someone to do this with you. We have a separate leaflet explaining 21-25 in more detail, your Personal Adviser will share this with you before you are 21 and support you in understanding this.

One thing which is important to share, however, is that when you decide, you can change your mind. You might be 23 and finding things a bit difficult, to the point short-term isn't enough. If that's the case, then we can do a new Pathway Assessment and plan with you, and you can reopen. We can't guarantee it will be the Personal Adviser you had before, but it will be someone ready to support you.