lcassey
5th July 2011, 09:17
Hi there first post bit of an odd rambling one but here goes!
My half sister is an 18 yr old Filipina and was living in manila with my estranged father and her mother.
He died recently leaving them penniless and homeless. He had never applied for her british citizenship. SO my brother and I went over there, managed to get all the docs together, left her mother some money and managed to get her a British Passport (that was a drama, I have never known a more corrupt incompetant or slow organisation as the Philippine National Office where we had to get her birth certs etc!)
Anyway she is now in the UK spending her time living with my brother and I (we have her alternate weeks)
Her English is not great but passable and she obviously wants to do something with her life! We have tried to get her into local colleges to do the basics GCSE's but we are being told that because she is 19 in August she is too old to enrol on free courses for education unless she is claiming Jobseekers Allowance. Obviously once she claims that (and we really dont want to claim it as none of our family has ever claimed benfits and dont believe in 'scrounging off the state') then surely she would be obliged to look for work when really she needs a basic education first!
I just wondered if anyone had any useful advice as we are banging our head against a brick wall here with Citizens advice bureau and the colleges themselves all saying she has to wait until next year to enrol as registrations have to be in on 31st Aug and she is over 19 by then! and only then if she is on Jobseekers Allowance!
She doesnt want to sit around for a whole year here with no real friends over here apart from us a family she barely knows when really she should be mixing and being educated with people her own age to start to make friends over here and get a better grasp of the language and culture!
Obviously we are trying to help her integrate and improve her language but we both work full time and have young families ourself so is very difficult to be with her 24/7 so she ends up spending a lot of time just sat in her room being miserable when we are out at work etc!
Any suggestions welcome!
My half sister is an 18 yr old Filipina and was living in manila with my estranged father and her mother.
He died recently leaving them penniless and homeless. He had never applied for her british citizenship. SO my brother and I went over there, managed to get all the docs together, left her mother some money and managed to get her a British Passport (that was a drama, I have never known a more corrupt incompetant or slow organisation as the Philippine National Office where we had to get her birth certs etc!)
Anyway she is now in the UK spending her time living with my brother and I (we have her alternate weeks)
Her English is not great but passable and she obviously wants to do something with her life! We have tried to get her into local colleges to do the basics GCSE's but we are being told that because she is 19 in August she is too old to enrol on free courses for education unless she is claiming Jobseekers Allowance. Obviously once she claims that (and we really dont want to claim it as none of our family has ever claimed benfits and dont believe in 'scrounging off the state') then surely she would be obliged to look for work when really she needs a basic education first!
I just wondered if anyone had any useful advice as we are banging our head against a brick wall here with Citizens advice bureau and the colleges themselves all saying she has to wait until next year to enrol as registrations have to be in on 31st Aug and she is over 19 by then! and only then if she is on Jobseekers Allowance!
She doesnt want to sit around for a whole year here with no real friends over here apart from us a family she barely knows when really she should be mixing and being educated with people her own age to start to make friends over here and get a better grasp of the language and culture!
Obviously we are trying to help her integrate and improve her language but we both work full time and have young families ourself so is very difficult to be with her 24/7 so she ends up spending a lot of time just sat in her room being miserable when we are out at work etc!
Any suggestions welcome!