Single foster carer adopting?

[Flower20166]

Hi,
Just wondering if there are any single foster carers out there who have ended up adopting the child they were fostering?

[colourfull]

not me personally but i have known a few who have, was pretty straight forward for the ones i knew

[Flower20166]

I'm just wondering how it would work financially.
I don't work outside of fostering. I don't have a mortgage but obviously still have water, gas, electricity bills to pay etc.
I could claim income support and child benefit and child tax credits but I don't know how much that is?
Child is 2 years old and I want to make sure I have thought everything through before I let child's social worker know that I'd like to be considered.

[Mammytomany74]

I know in Scotland if a fostercarer adopts they are usually paid their fostering allowance for up to two years.

[Flower20166]

I haven't heard of that here, but I'll have to check. I know that they like you to take around a years break from fostering if you adopt though.

[FairyTreeHouse]

Hi Flower, I'm a single foster carer. I've not adopted but I have a 3 year old birth son, so I can claim income support and child tax credit for him, and also child benefit. (Good job too, because I couldn't survive on just my fostering income!) Claiming income support means you can get a reduction in council tax too.

So to answer your question, you're looking at around £72 a week for income support, £62 a week for child tax credit and £82 a month for child benefit. I think I'm paying about 15% council tax, so that's a saving each month.

(I think CTC is based on your previous year's earnings, so that might be a different amount for you...not 100% sure about this though.)

Hope that helps. And have a look at online benefits calculators, they'll tell you what you might be able to claim.

[Flower20166]

That's helped enormously FairyTreeHouse, thankyou.
I currently do get income support and council tax reduction, which is a huge help!
That better helps me knowing where I stand financially now.

[FairyTreeHouse]

Glad it helped. Good luck!

[Flower20166]

Thankyou! :)

[MinnowAndTheBear]

Just wanted to add - you will only be able to claim Income Support until your newly adopted child turns five. After that it's Jobseekers.
Fosters carers can claim IS beyond age five.

[Flower20166]

Thanks Minnow. It's such a mindfield!