To ask for £20 a week?

[Positivelymum]

I don’t want to drip feed but I don’t want this to be outing.

I’m currently looking after another child 4-5 nights a week, they are not blood related. I’m already a solo parent to one and recieve no maintenance for them. Financially things are starting to creep up as it’s been a few weeks now.

AIBU to ask for a £20 a week contribution to them staying with me? I don’t want to come across as grabby! This child wants to continue staying with me but I don’t want to get to a point I have to say I can’t afford it or that I’m feeling taken advantage of.

If you think IABU please tell me what’s realistic?

Thank you

If there is no one with parental rights, I’m assuming that the parents are deceased, the local authority hold corporate parenting responsibility and should therefore pay for the child’s care.

Have you discussed money with the 18 year old they could be receiving UC for the child. What are their living arrangements? Are you entitled to universal credit or would you be if you add the child to your claim? If so you can claim for them, the 2 child rule does not apply. You should contact Kinship Carers for support around s17 payments and other financial options.

Can you ask whoever gets the child benefit for that at least ?

It's not kinship care

Someone is getting child benefit for this child and possibly UC you need to speak to the 18 yr old. Everyone knows it’s fair and correct that you need financial help to support this child, you don’t want to make money but you don’t want to be out of pocket either. Start to shout louder, be the squeaky wheel, advocate for this child, speak to your MP, start to get angry.

YANBU to need financial support for caring for the child £20 doesn’t sound enough !
You need to get some advice from CAB. You may be entitled to benefits too

Why not? Fits our LA definition

https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/children/social-care/fostering/types/kinship

Thank you for everyone’s advice. SW is getting legal advice for the situation as it isn’t straight forward and there’s a meeting next week. She has mentioned kinship but I don’t really know what that means.

Apologies, I was mistaken and thought kinship had to be related.

Kinship means £0.

Who is receiving the child benefit?

Kinship doesn’t mean £0. Kinship carers can be assessed as family and friend foster carers and receive allowances to care for the child. Even a private fostering arrangement should include agreement about what financial support will be paid to the carer.

Is it possible to go down the formal fostering route if the child chooses to go into care? It seems like it’s the way they’d get the most support

How would the child choose to go into care though?

They’ve already talked to their SW about it

If a child or young person becomes looked after, the LA is obliged to explore whether someone in the child's network can accommodate them (as registered foster carers). If the SW is talking about this child being looked after, then they will need to have some sort of plan for where the child lives. If it is just the child requesting to become looked after, that wouldn't necessarily lead to them becoming looked after.

Whether or not the child "chooses" to go into care is moot really when it comes to who they are placed with. If a child has nobody exercising PR, the LA may be obliged to accommodate - depending on age and circumstances. A young person "choosing" to becoming looked after would only come about if the LA assessed that they cannot return home (for whatever reason) AND the people with PR are unavailable or not in agreement. (Unless the child is homeless but that's a specific type of assessment)

I wonder if you provided more information about the circumstances if you'd receive more meaningful answers.