Moving out of your parents’ home has to be one of the biggest things you can do in life. It’s a huge moment in your transition to adulthood, you have no idea what you’re doing because you have to take on responsibilities that you may never have thought you had to face. Your parents might help you to start with, like setting up bills and helping you settle into your new home – but what if your parents kick you out of home and you have no idea what you’re doing?
According to the government’s website: “You may be considered legally homeless if the place you live is unsafe, unsuitable or you have no legal right to be there. You can be legally homeless if you’re staying with friends or another family for a while. You do not have to be sleeping rough to be homeless.”
If you are under 16 and consider yourself homeless you must contact Children’s Services at your local council, and they will try and help you to resolve the situation so you are able to stay at home. However, if living at home is deemed dangerous or even impossible, then they can arrange for you to live with another family member or adult, find you emergency accommodation or look at other options such as living with a foster family. If you are aged 16 or 17 and consider yourself homeless, Children’s Services will usually provide you with accommodation as a ‘child in need’. They will also consider if there is any way for you to return home or go to live with a relative – but they cannot force you to go back somewhere that you do not feel safe.
At 18 I was kicked out of my house by my parents, which made me homeless. I had nowhere to go and was alone. I stayed in a hotel for a few weeks and then got placed in temporary accommodation, which I am still in now. I feel in a better position now then I was initially, the first few months are some of the loneliest and the worst because you’re trying to get everything together with help from a support worker. Trying to get yourself set up feels like a nightmare. For example, paying bills – it’s one of the things they don’t teach in school but you wish they did, to prepare you for adulthood or if this situation ever happened to you. Some bills are easy to set up, such as Wi-Fi – you choose an internet provider you’re happy with and then you set up a direct debit and it gets paid every month. However, some bills are not as easy, such as council tax. For a good few months, I had no idea that council tax was even a thing until my support worker told me about it. It’s a bill that you have to pay and if you don’t, it can be serious and result in you going to prison. To start paying council tax you have to contact your local council, they will register you and send you out a bill which will tell you how and when you need to pay. Luckily there are discounts for council tax if you are eligible for them, such as single occupier, disability reduction, hospital patient and full-time student, to name just a few. You must apply for these if you can otherwise you’ll be paying in full for your council tax.
This is why budgeting courses are such an amazing tool. As you’ll be able to see everything you are sending per month and you can track anything you spend from food to bills to pretty much everything. It’s important to know what you’re budgeting for as you don’t want to be left out of pocket or to be underpaying something. Learning about priority and non-priority bills will help a lot to see what you can spend on yourself and what needs to be outgoing. To budget, it is best if you either use the 50/30/20 method where 50% of your income goes on living expenses, 30% on purchases and lifestyle choices and 20% for saving or debt payments. Alternatively, setting up a spreadsheet of everything you have to pay first, minus your income and then calculate what you have left over for yourself. This is the method I use which allows me to also put money away to help save as a safety net for the future.
If you are in danger of being homeless or are homeless, contact your local council or the police if you feel unsafe and they will help you in any way possible.
