Fostered or adopted?

[NameChangeSake797]

Posting this on behalf of my niece.

She always thought her step-dad adopted her after her mum died (we as a family supported this as it meant she could stay with her siblings) - we also believed she was adopted too.

Now she's over 16 she's moved in with her bio family. Her dad is now 'struggling' now he's £700 down a month for her. He said he didn't do it for the money but it definitely 'helped'.

No authorities have been in contact with us now she's living with us.

Does this mean she's been fostered all these years as surely if she was adopted she wouldn't of had that kind of financial help from the government?

So he’s saying he was getting £700 / month whilst she was living with him? Has he said whether it’s from the government or a trust set up by her mum?

Does she not mean he's lost his benefits?

@ForkedIt

The benefits that came with her. Apparently he was offered it when he adopted her.

He has his other children living at home and he works full time.

Unfortunately her mum died with no insurance or money of her own.

A bio family member was paying for all of her extra-curricular but that was paid directly. Same with school trips. No family member was paying him directly.

I have an adopted son and have never had any money. Once children are adopted they are yours as is a birth child.

Sounds strange tbh

I believe (don't know 100%) that someone with a residency order would get payment

Doesn't sound like adoption. Your poor niece.

Does she get any benefits such as DLA?

Otherwise, yes, it sounds like maybe he was in receipt of some sort of foster payment.

He may have meant child benefit/tax credits that he was claiming that a lot of parents/carers get. You have to apply for these, they don’t just ‘come with’ the child. Though £700 does seem like a lot

Sounds like fostering payments to me.

I have friends who adopted, they got an adoption allowance paid monthly for a few years. It was means tested and the threshold was pretty high as they had good jobs and lived in a nice house in London. It only stopped when the dad got a big promotion and the mum got a new better paid job.
If he adopted her it will be on her birth certificate (a new one will have been issued).

'benefits'? As in child benefit? Would it partly consist of working tax credits? Beyond that, I'm confused.

Most likely to be benefits tbh
He could easily have been getting £700 a month in tax credits

There can be financial support packages for adopted children so it is possible. Also could have been an SGO, which can also come with financial support. Fostering seems unlikely IMO.

It isn't fostering. Foster carers are trained and monitored closely. Maybe a kinship type arrangement? Some of those types of arrangements came with financial support.

She can approach SS and ask.

It sounds like if she hadn't stayed with step-dad (regardless of legal adoption or not), there was the option of living with her bio family at the time? In that case, there would have been no need for a foster placement, and I doubt social services would have been involved. I think it's unlikely he has been operating a family-foster placement / kinship care / special guardianship arrangement, as I can't see why social services would think it was needed.

It's very rare for an adoption or guardian allowance to be provided - generally only when children have extremely high care needs due to a disability, which means they will need a full-time adult at home. Even then, it's often means-tested and subject to annual review. And it isn't a lot of money.

It's more likely to be a combination of child benefit and child tax credits, although 700 is high unless he's trying it on and has plucked a figure out of the air

The benefits that came with her. Apparently he was offered it when he adopted her.

As PPs have said, four options (probably combo of 1 and either 2 or 3):

1. State benefits such as Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit are unlikely to get near £700 per month for one child.
2. Adoption Allowance might well have been paid to a single parent with other kids. This is paid by the Local Authority.
3. The child could be under a Special Guardianship Order (permanent placement with step-dad without adoption) and an Allowance might have been paid by the LA as part of that.
4. They might have qualified as a FC and been paid by the LA for fostering but this seems unlikely to me.

No reason step-dad isn't perfectly correct and it's 2. Adoption Allowance is quite normal, if hard to get.

Widowed parents allowance?

It's very rare for an adoption or guardian allowance to be provided - generally only when children have extremely high care needs due to a disability, which means they will need a full-time adult at home. Even then, it's often means-tested and subject to annual review.

That's very true now but it wasn't always quite so bad. Strictly it's means tested on income. I can quite see an LA paying it to a low-income single parent to keep siblings together and avoid the expenses of fostering or the uncertainty of a possible SGO with wider family.

£700 a month doesn't sound enough for fostering payments for a teenager and there are no payments in adoption so is it possible she was on an SGO (Special Guardianship Order)?

Please stop saying there are no payments in adoption. There can be an adoption allowance. As a pp said it’s means tested and more often used for children who are harder to place but it certainly exists and it’s possible that if her dad already had several dependents he would have been entitled to it.