Child Tax Credit qualifying young person omits the 16-year-old rule and the 20 weeks after leaving (CTC Regs 2002 regs 4 and 5(3)(b)) #2290

What is wrong

is_qualifying_young_person_for_child_tax_credit models only the education and training condition (Child Tax Credit Regulations 2002 reg. 5(3)(a) and (ab)). Two rules for a young person who has left education are missing:

• Reg. 4. A person is a qualifying young person from their 16th birthday until the 31 August that next follows it, without needing education.
• Reg. 5(3)(b). A person under 18 who has left, and is registered for work or training with a qualifying body, satisfies the first condition for 20 weeks.

The second condition (reg. 5(4)) applies to both: once a young person has left education or training, remunerative work (24 hours a week or more) ends the status.

HMRC's manual page TCTM02220, which meets_qualifying_young_person_entry_condition_for_child_tax_credit already cites, states the no-education rule.

It matters for years up to 2024-25: tax credits ended on 5 April 2025.

The law

Child Tax Credit Regulations 2002:

• Reg. 4: "(1) Subject to paragraph (1A), a person who attains the age of sixteen is a qualifying young person from the date on which that person attained that age until 31st August which next follows that date. (1A) A person who attains the age of sixteen on 31st August is a qualifying young person from the date on which that person attained that age. (2) Paragraph (1) is subject to regulation 5 but as if there were no requirement to satisfy the first condition specified in paragraph (3) of that regulation. (2A) Paragraph (1A) is subject to regulation 5."
• Reg. 5(3)(b): the first condition is also met by a person "under the age of eighteen years and— (i) he ceased to receive full-time education or to undertake approved training (the date of that event being referred to as “the relevant leaving date”); (ii) within 3 months of the relevant leaving date, he has notified the Board [...] that he is registered for work or training with a qualifying body, and (iii) not more than 20 weeks has elapsed since the relevant leaving date."
• Reg. 5(4): "The second condition is that the period in question is not (and does not include)— (a) a week in which he (having ceased to receive full-time education or approved training) becomes engaged in remunerative work [...] (c) a period in respect of which that person receives income support, income-related employment and support allowance [...], income-based jobseeker's allowance [...] or universal credit".
• Reg. 2(1): "“remunerative work” means work which is— (a) done for payment or in expectation of payment, (b) undertaken for not less than 24 hours a week [...]".

Fix

• Reg. 4 from is_before_first_september_following_16th_birthday (added in Count 16-year-olds outside education as UC and Pension Credit qualifying young persons until the 1 September after their 16th birthday #2279). A 16th birthday on 31 August gets no reg. 4 period (reg. 4(1A)), which stops the period running to the next year's 31 August; the date fact already ends it that year.
• Reg. 5(3)(b) from a new input, false by default, because surveys do not record the registration.
• Reg. 5(4)(a): a young person who has left and works 24 hours a week or more qualifies through neither.

Needs #2279 (the date fact) and #2285 (so a 16-year-old who heads their own benefit unit is not their own qualifying young person).