Your home

You can access a range of accommodation when you turn 18 and your PA will support you with this depending on your strengths, needs and wishes. Your options include:

• Staying put with your foster carer
• Moving into supported or semi-independent accommodation
• Your own home with support from a positive transitions (PT) worker
• Renting your own home
• Planning to buy your own property

You can continue to live with your foster carer after you turn 18, if this is what you both want - this is called staying put. Staying put will be talked about at your reviews leading up to your 18th birthday.

To get you ready for managing bills etc, you will be expected to make a financial contribution. The amount will depend on your individual circumstances so it will be different for everyone. We will talk this through with you and your foster carer.

If you are 16 or 17 you can move into semi-independent accommodation. This means that you will share accommodation with other young people supported by workers. They will help you to learn the skills you need live on your own.

Positive Transitions (PT) means that you have your own property and a support worker from Blackpool Coastal Housing. Your PT worker will help you to manage your tenancy and support your to develop your independent living skills. This is with the aim of helping you to be a successful tenant and make sure that you feel safe and happy in your home.

You might choose to live on your own, with a friend or with your partner in your own home. 

This is called private rented accommodation. 

Your PA will help you to look for flats or houses that are affordable for you and help you check the quality of the property.

You might have been able to save money or have some inheritance or compensation payments that you can use towards buying a home.  

Please speak with your PA who will support you in looking at your options.

If you are planning to go to university we will help you with an accommodation grant. The amount that we will provide is different depending on where you are attending uni as we match the local housing allowance of the town or city you will live in.

Want to go home in the holidays? We will support your former foster carer so that you can return home during holiday periods.

Don't want to live in halls? You can stay at home under staying put arrangements.

We will help you to move to your chosen university and make sure that you have all the essential items you need and the luggage to move it.

When you are ready to move into your own home we will support you to buy the essential things that you need. This is called your ‘setting up home allowance’. This money can be used towards:

• Furniture, flooring and white goods (like a washing machine)
• TV licence
• Cooker and washing machine and the connection costs
• Decorating costs
• Contents Insurance
• Anything else you may need

These are some of the things you will need to do:

• Attend tenancy training
• Worked on budgeting
• Set up and pay bills
• Set up and pay Council Tax
• Read and sign your tenancy agreement
• Have an email address

Council tax is a compulsory charge on properties. The amount you pay is decided by the council. This money is then used to provide you with services like the fire service and police.

Typically, anyone who is over 18 and owns or rents a home has to pay council tax.

We offer help with paying your council tax. We pay a percentage each year to help you and also to prepare you for managing your own bills. This applies wherever you live. A Tax year starts in April and ends in April the following year

• Tax year in which your 18th birthday falls - We will pay a 85% contribution and you will pay 15%
• Tax year in which your 19th birthday falls - We will pay a 70% contribution and you will pay 30%
• Tax year in which your 20th birthday falls - We will pay a 55% contribution and you will pay 45%
• Tax year in which your 21st birthday falls - We will pay a 30% contribution and you will pay 70%

The contribution will be applied after any existing discounts such as single person- 25% discount, low income 27%, discount if not working etc. Where there is more there one person in the property, you are jointly responsible.

Your PA will offer you lots of help and support to make sure that everything is in place for you…but there are some things that you will need to remember to do. These are:

• Keep in touch with your personal advisor to plan for your independence
• Work with the housing services that are there to support you
• Attend any appointments with the job centre and make sure you are on time
• Stick to your tenancy agreement

Check out the Offer app, the Core

You can download The Core by searching in the Apps store, using link or QR code below

• Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/blackpool-the-core/id1504665579

• Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details