Hill says she was “speechless for a good 10 minutes” after finding out that she had been chosen to receive the money.
“These things don’t often happen to me, I’m not a very lucky person.”
The 22-year-old from the West Midlands spent two years in care as a teenager, living with foster parents, which she describes as a “very mentally taxing experience”.
She says she has autism and “other issues” which weren’t appreciated or supported at the time.
“It just felt like the only person I had was myself, which really sucks.”
Despite the challenges, she managed to go to university and is currently studying forensic investigations.
Hill used the money to buy a PC for her studies and to take her partner on holiday, for a week to Liverpool.
“I was working on a laptop that was slow and it kept crashing. I’d been saving for a new PC but when I got the money, it meant I could finally get the thing I really needed to help with uni,” she says.
A parliamentary inquiry last year, external highlighted that care leavers faced substantial challenges.
A third become homeless within two years of leaving care, while about a quarter of the prison population have spent time in care.
Care leavers are much less likely to go to university or to be in any education, training or employment at age 19.
Direct cash transfers have been shown to help tackle poverty in several other countries.
Researchers from King’s College have already started another project examining whether giving homeless people a £2,000 no strings attached cash grant can tackle homelessness.