My view on the potential loss of housng benefit as a care leaver.

I am a care leaver who has been forced to live independently since the age of seventeen. At seventeen years old I was still in my first year of sixth form college. Up until I was eighteen social services were obliged to pay for my accommodation. Once I turned eighteen social services were no longer responsible for me. I was told that I would have to apply for housing benefit to fund my rent. I am a resilient young person who has always been very anti claiming benefits and who has wanted to break the negative stereotype young people in care are given. I worked my hardest whilst studying yet I could still not afford the rent so I agreed to accept housing benefit. Due to the numerous flaws already existing in our welfare system I could not complete my A levels anyway because of financial difficulties in commuting to college. This meant I had to drop out and work. I managed to find a flat share because being the type of person I am, I did not want to claim benefit for a whole flat that I did not need.

If I did not have housing benefit to pay for my share of rent I would have been homeless. At seventeen years old when you are looking for your first job you face so much rejection from lack of experience in the work industry. I was lucky and managed to find work within retail however the majority of jobs in retail are part time, finding full time work was almost impossible. Even if I was working full time I would not have been able to afford somewhere to live, bills, food etc because of how low pay I was receiving. Minimum wage for eighteen year olds is £5.13 an hour, how are we expected to make a living from that?

In my opinion the government can not expect care leavers to legally stay in education until they have completed year thirteen. Work full time to pay for rent, food etc. AND not receive any sort of benefit. The government wants Britain to be full of hard working people. Care leavers can not become hard working people if they are never given the resources to start out.
I believe the government will not target societies most vulnerable young people and those who want to achieve however in case I am wrong I first hand testify to the government that cutting all benefits for care leavers will cause for a destructive future. Unemployment will rise, homelessness will rise,  health costs will rise and the governments worst fear will rise - 'Laziness'.