What can you buy for £500 when setting up home today? Perhaps a reasonably priced TV, a sofa, and a bed and mattress.
But if you're a care leaver in certain parts of the country, £500 would have to stretch to cover all your setting up home purchases - from buying a fridge right down to acquiring the tablecloths and teaspoons.
According to an exclusive study carried out by CYP Now in conjunction with the Care Leavers' Foundation, four out of the 126 councils in England that responded provide a maximum leaving care grant of £800 or less. Bottom of the list is Oxfordshire County Council, which provides £500, followed by Worcestershire, which offers £750, and Kent and Newcastle upon Tyne, which provide up to £800. Twenty-five local authorities provide at least double that figure, including the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, which offers a leaving care grant of up to £2,200. However, according to the Care Leavers' Foundation, this is still not enough. The foundation is currently undertaking a study with care leavers to establish how much they believe they need to set up home properly. The results so far indicate that young people need at least £2,500.
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