Savings

[CabbagePatchCheryl]

Hi all. Just wondering if anyone can tak to me about what kind of savings our agency (LA) might expect us to have as prospective adopters? We’re just going into stage 2. I have a few thousand in an isa (bequest from my grandmother) but planning to spend a chunk of it soon on some work to our house and garden, though that’s largely with our future kid in mind- trying to create better space for playing, toys, sofa snuggles etc.

[Ted27]

You need to be looking at your own outgoings and looking at what your income might be reduced to, and in particular how will you fund adoption leave.
I had very little in the way of savings, just a few thousand, but I was fortunate to have 6 months adoption leave on full pay and three months on half pay so I only had to fund three months.
Do a budget, what are your fixed outgoings - mortagage, bills, car, food etc, how much do you need to cover that for say 6 months

[CabbagePatchCheryl]

Thanks Ted. We are very financially conscious - we know exactly what we earn and spend and have worked thru the impact of adoption leave on that. (I work part time and my weekly income is actually almost exactly the same as SMP so we’re actually quite lucky in that respect.) I was more asking if people felt SWs were keen on seeing a particular level of “rainy day” savings ie not related to adoption leave specifically.

[UmSayWhat]

I don’t think you need to have savings. We had savings purely to ensure we could take a whole year off with our child. It’s more about being sensible with money and not having tonnes of debt.

[LemonSqueezy0]

I think SW will take an overview so as long as you can service your debts AND have time off, you will be fine. They want to know you could fix the boiler if it broke, not if you could afford around the world cruises.

Sounds like you'll be fine

[PicaK]

Can you put food in the fridge and clothes on their back despite being on adoption leave. It's that overall picture they are looking at.

[Ted27]

Don't forget to factor in child benefit and check if you would be eligible for tax credits.

You probably need a few thousand just to have a bit of a cushion, life happens, the first half term we had my hoover blew up, the washing machine conked out and I needed new glasses, that was an expensive week !

[CabbagePatchCheryl]

Yikes! Yes I definitely think we’d still have enough for major boiler/car/washing machine disasters. I haven’t even started to look at tax credits etc although actually we’re in a universal credit area I think so that’s a whole other minefield to negotiate! Thanks all for the advice - am reassured.

[howmanyusernames]

I think we had about £4k saved, but I work for myself so could still work when LO was asleep, and my husband took adoption leave as his company policy was enhanced pay.
SW's just look at what you have going out and coming in, and ask if you have thought about the additional costs a child will bring, and also when your pay is reduced (although I think you have this covered as SAP is the same as your wage).
We weren't asked about if something major needed fixing/replacing, but maybe it's because of what we'd saved?
They just need to know you have considered the additional costs a child will bring, and if your child needed you to be off work for longer could you afford to do it, which from what you've said you could.

[adoptDad]

We had about 3 grand in savings when the social worker looked at our bank statements.

We were in a similar position too you as the year before we spent nearly every penny we had on doing our house up before going through the process.

Our social worker was totally understanding, she was more concerned that we had a good stable income coming in each month that would support the family.