If the Home Office thinks that the way you look or behave very strongly suggests you are 18 years or older they may decide to treat you as an adult rather than a child. You may then be sent to live in accommodation (housing) with adults. If this happens to you, you can ask for help to have your age recognised and be treated as a child. This is called an age dispute. With any issues regarding age, you can ask your advocate to support you, get referred to the Refugee Council age dispute project, or to a community care lawyer for advice and representation. You can ask the accommodation (housing) provider to help you get the contact details for the Refugee Council or advocate and challenge the decision that you are an adult. If you have an immigration lawyer, it is important to tell them you are a child if you are being treated as an adult.

While you are being age assessed you should be placed under social services care and should be treated as a child. This means you will benefit from the same entitlements as any other child in care such as suitable accommodation (housing); food; clothes; access to education and healthcare (doctor/ GP); support from a social worker and a foster carer or key worker. If you are not being looked after while an age assessment is happening, speak to the Refugee Council, an advocate or whoever is helping you and ask them to refer you to a lawyer for help with this. For any issues regarding age, you can ask your advocate to support you, get referred to the Refugee Council age dispute project, or to a community care lawyer for advice and representation. The process can be very scary, but you are not alone. There are other young people in your position and others who have been through this process before.

Guidance (official advice from the government) says that social workers should try to complete an age assessment within 28 days and social services should give you an answer then but it can take a lot longer. You may be asked to attend several meetings where you will be asked a lot of questions about your life. This is because social services want to understand the timeline of your life to see if your behaviour matches that of a child or young person under 18. You may also be asked to give DNA samples, saliva, or have an X-ray scan. You must consent (agree) to this, or an adult can consent on your behalf. If you do not consent to this type of age assessment, it could be that your credibility (truthfulness) might be questioned. But if a specific method (like an X-ray) makes you feel uncomfortable, you can ask for this not to happen. During these meetings, someone who does not work for social services will be there to support you. This person is called an Appropriate Adult and is there to look out for you and make sure everything is okay during the assessment. If social services decide that they do not believe your age and think that you are an adult you can ask for a lawyer to help you to challenge this decision at a court called the First-Tier Tribunal (see “Social services care” stage).

The ARC is a small plastic card with your photo and personal information. It should be with you within three days after your welfare (small) interview. It is usually sent out to your social worker. Check with them or ask your foster carer/key worker to check with your social worker if you have not received it. If it has not arrived within a week, ask your social worker or your lawyer to contact the Home Office. Your ARC shows that you have claimed asylum and can stay in the UK while your claim is being looked into. This card will also show if your age is disputed and if you have the right to work in the UK. It is an important document and is needed to register at school or college for example. Remember to make a copy of all your ID documents and to keep them safe!

If any of these things has happened to you, it is a good idea to say so in your welfare (small) interview. Try not to wait until later in the process – it is good to say it as soon as you can. You will not be required to discuss what has happened to you in detail at this stage. Talk to someone you trust about how to tell the Home Office what has happened (your lawyer might write a statement using your words so you don’t have to say the words to the Home Office in an interview). If there are signs that you may have been trafficked (forced to work or do something you didn’t want to do) you will be referred onto the “National Referral Mechanism” (NRM) by the Home Office or Social services (or by anyone who is called a “first responder”). This means they will try to get additional support for you.

If the Home Office does not believe you are under 18 you might be age assessed. The Home Office will first assess your age by how you look and how you act. There will be two Home Office people doing this assessment. This is a very unreliable way of telling how old someone is, and the Home Office often get this assessment wrong. Home Office thinks that you are over 18 after this process, you will be given a date of birth which makes you an adult. It can be very upsetting if the Home Office gets your age wrong, but you are not alone. If this happens to you, ask your legal representative or a charity which is supporting you to ask the local authority you are moved to to reassess your age. This will be done by social workers.

Do not worry. Try your best to explain to the interviewer why you do not know when your birthday is. Maybe you never celebrated your birthday in your home country. Maybe your country uses a different calendar so the dates do not match up. Try not to make up a date of birth if you are not sure.