Is this right? - Paying to adopt

[LalyRawr]

I overheard this conversation, so fully aware I don't have all the facts, but from what I heard it doesn't sound right.

Lady is a Foster Carer. Currently has a 8 month old she is looking after. Once the baby turns one she is allowed to apply to adopt her, but has to pay £1500 upon application.

Is this correct? If so, what are the reasons for this payment? Sounds a bit like buying children, which doesn't sit well. Kind of like selling the child to the highest bidder.

Like I say, I overheard this conversation, so may well have got the wrong end of the stick, but has anyone heard of anything like this?

As far as I know there is no charge for adopting in the UK. If you adopt from abroad you are charged for the home study and some of the paperwork that is needed.

There is a court fee to finalise an adoption which is I think currently in the region of £150 - it might be a bit over or under that. If you adopt more than one child you pay more.

Adoptive parents have to have a medical check and GP's will usually charge for this. The LA may or may not pick up the tab. However I think they always pay for foster carers' medical checks

Other than that, there is no charge for homestudy, panel or anything else in the adoption process. So at least you spend £0, at most say up to £300-350 for a single child if you had to pay for medicals and the court fee

If you adopt internationally, you do have to pay for home study, it could be anywhere from 3-6K I guess from what I've heard/read, depends who assesses you

PS. If you're thinking that's a high figure, it's because some GP's are frankly overcharging on a ridiculous scale. On AdoptionUK some families reported being told to pay £60, but one families GP wanted to charge about £200!!!! Bloody ridiculous

Court and medical costs are either paid directly by the Adoption team in my area, or are totally reimbursable.
Adoption should only cost if done internationally.

I understand that international adoption incurs costs, but thought they were no charges for adoption in the UK.

If the court fee is £150, do you think maybe the lady misread and thought it was £1500?

The court fee isn't exactly £150, but I know it's somewhere in that region

I'll look it up...

Okay, I have a list from the court web site which lists charges, it says £170

I have no idea about such a large sum of money. Payed to whom anyway, the LA, the courts? Maybe the LA pay certain bits of fostering related money in advance, so it needs to be payed back if you change from foster to adoptive carer.

Prrobably pointless guessing, but be reassured that nobody pays for a child when it comes to adoption!

Our court fee was £150 which we had to pay directly to the court. Our medical costs were £120+ but our GP waived the fee as he thought it inappropriate that we had to pay to adopt. Our LA did not reimburse us for anything.

We did not pay to adopt however (and all the money we did pay for everything was more than worth it! :) )

We paid a similar court fee, but that was the only cost we incurred

Bizarre how some agency's do not reimburse court fees, ours did.
Although we had to pay our medical fees. Our GP practice were so awful about the whole experience, they refused to send of the completed forms until the money had cleared.