Centrepoint chief executive Anthony Lawton described the changes, unveiled by Chancellor Gordon Brown in the Budget, as a "major advance" in improving the lot of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET).
In a Treasury consultation document, called Supporting Young People To Achieve, which accompanied the Budget, the Government outlined changes designed to simplify the benefits system for 16- to 19-year-olds.
Reforms include stopping the automatic cut-off of benefits such as income support and child benefit at 19 so that young people can finish courses.
Lawton said: "Removing the cut-off is vital. Often young people who have had disrupted lives get back into education only to turn 19 and have their benefits taken away, which in turn causes them to drop out again."
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