Unemployment, Youth Homelessness and the Allocation of Family Responsibility

The following discussion concerns two issues relating to what is usually called youth homelessness. The first concerns the accommodation expectations for 15 to 17 year olds to reside at their parent's home, which is encouraged by the existing government's policies, and the non‐indexation of the unemployment benefit for single 16 and 17 year olds. Assumptions about family responsibility are also discussed and linked with assumptions about family dependency. The second concerns the establishing of a minimum data base from which the quantification of the number of homeless youth can begin. Additional data available, however, suggests that the numbers of young people who might be expected to experience difficulty finding accommodation is much higher than first thought.