Adoption and Child benefit

[april74]

received a package of letters from the council this morning with regard to the adoption, there was a letter in there to the benfits agency.

Is child benefit payable on placement, or when the adoption becomes permament. Any advice on this would be great.

See here:

www.hmcr.eu/forms/ch194a.pdf

The relevant bit is:

"If you are adopting a child you may be able to get Child Benefit as soon as the child starts to live with you, even if you get an Adoption Allowance. But you cannot get Child Benefit if the local authority or Health and Social Services Board or Trust pay you a fostering allowance, or any other payment to help with the cost of the child?s accommodation or basic maintenance."

I got mine from placement, you apply and HB send a form for your social worker to fill in.

april, if you will be getting a fostering allowance from your LA then you cant get child benefit. i'm assuming you are not as you are fostering a baby with a view to adoption

you can therefore apply for child benefit from when your DD comes to live with you. you should do it straight away, as your application can't be back dated for more than 3 months

you don't have to be a child's legal parent to apply for child benefit, just the person caring for the child IYSWIM. as long as you are not receiving monye from teh LA, it doesnt matter that you are technically a foster carer until teh adoption order is granted.

if one of you is stopping work then thats the person who shoudl apply for the child benefit, even if its your DH. Its because there is some protection for your pension if you are receiving child benefit. It used to be called something like Home Responsibility Protection

HTH

and congratulations BTW

Many thanks again for your help.