legal resposibilties , parents or government

Hi guys,
can anybody tell me up to what age is a parent legally responsible for a mentally impaired child.., can anybody confirm for me please.

This is the first of many questions i need to ask, the others will become apparent depending on the answer of each, eventually you will see where i am going with this set of questions, and if my theory is correct, it my be of benefit to many carers who get very little or no help from the government.

Hi j1954,

Have you looked into the future potential possibility of becoming their appointee ?

Becoming an Appointee for someone claiming benefits.

bro58

Putting the mental impairment to one side:

The NSPCC website says:

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as everyone under 18 unless, "under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier" (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1989). The UK has ratified this convention.

The GMC say:

A ‘person with parental responsibility’ means someone with the rights and responsibilities that parents have in law for their child, including the right to consent to medical treatment for them, up to the age of 18 years in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and up to 16 years in Scotland.

So, unless it's Scotland, there seems agreement on 18 being the end of childhood and parental responsibility (in a legal sense).

You'd then be looking at responsibility (Parental or otherwise) for an Adult.

Good luck with your theory.

And funnily enough you must be at least 16 to be eligible for Carer's Allowance, but aren't (usually) eligible for it if you've reached State retirement age.

If your theory is on (the lack of) Government help for carers, you might want to look at the many exclusion criteria for the allowance, as well as the eligibility regarding the person being cared for:
www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/eligibility