Adoption finances

[twinnywinny14]

I am well prepared for honest answers and need that! DH and I have registered ourselves for initial visit from sw but am concerned about finances. We are both relatively low earners and have about £300 left a month after bills and food, fuel etc. By middle of next yr we will have a loan less of £150 so will have that on top. We will have enough saved for up to 6months off work after placement and are hoping for preschooler or older. Are we likely to be rejected on financial reasons? How financially stable do you need to be? X

It depends on what you plan to do about childcare etc. Nurseries are expensive plus you have to feed, clothe and entertain a whole extra person.
We had about £500 a month leftover after bills and current childcare and were approved no problems. We have however found it very hard financially this year as we underestimated how much extra we would spend especially as DD came home a few days before 3 birthdays followed 2 months later by another birthday and xmas.
The other thing is that they will probably want you to take more than 6 months off. Closer to a year is what they push for.

Thanks for your reply, with a school aged child we won’t need childcare and a 3yr old plus we will get childcare paid, I work in a nursery and dh has very small good preschool on site where he works if needed. I feel we could cope esp when loan paid and nearly £500 left but it might be the yr off that delays things while we save that extra ££ to cover that x

Would you not need childcare for before and after school? School holidays?
I would look at every single outgoing and include the costs of adding a child to that. I would say we spend £100 every 3-4 months on clothes not including school uniforms and then maybe an extra £30 a week on food because you will be home for 9-12 months. The extra cost of running a household that now stands empty 9-5 but will be using electricity and heating that you weren't before. The cost of bedroom furniture for the childs room and storage for the sheer amount of stuff they come with.
Birthdays/xmas and toys that need buying before then plus day trips at weekends and entertaining them through out the holidays. We really struggled for about 6 months even though we thought we had enough. Worth every minute but I wish we had saved more.

If you’d be entitled to benefits factor them in too.

Thank you, no dh only works schools hours and we both work term time only so no additional childcare needed, thank you for the advice we will sit and look at it all again x

Biggest cost was that, as it turned out, LO absolutely could not cope with nursery or childcare - the move from foster care to me resulted in huge fear of separation and quite a lot of other needs suddenly coming to the surface - so you need to know how you'd cope if one of you couldn't return to work... In reality, I doubt many people really have the means to cover that without help, but you might need to show you're aware of the possibility. There can also be a lot of hospital appointments/therapeutic appointments, and that's tough to combine with most jobs. A few years down the line, it's become our normal and all manageable, and thankfully I have a very understanding employer!