Advice needed re teenage niece living with us plz

[fourandahalfkids]

Our 15 year old niece moved in with us nearly 4 weeks ago after a complete relationship breakdown with her mother. Social services were involved placing her here but as I understand it we are voluntarily accomadting her. Her dad ( dh's brother) lives in another country and is coming over next week. His knee jerk reaction was to obtain custody of his daughter and move her over with him. However, this is not really practical at the moment for several reasons,the most important being that she is in year ten, does not speak the language where her father lives and nearest English speaking school is an hours drive away. The education system is completely different over there and we feel it would be detrimental to move her now.

Dh's brother is coming to talk to us about looking after her until after she finishes school ( this was our suggestion and we are happy to do this).

We have four children of our own and dh is on a low wage so money is tight and we are in receipt of tax credits and housing benefit. Dh's brother on the other hand is on a very high wage and has always supported his daughter well. This week, despite us saying it was too much he deposited £500 into our account for looking after our niece. He says he will do this every month, but this is way too much and we will talk about it more when he gets back.

My question is this, if he continues to financially support his daughter ( he will) by putting money in our account will this affect our benefits? Should we claim cb and tax credits for our niece or not if he is paying.

Also legally we have nothing in place, he is going to seek legal advice when he gets home but is there anything we should look out for?

Dn's mother says she never wants to see her again and dn said if she is made to go back she will only run away and come here again. The social worker has told us that we have a very strong case for keeping her here as long as her father supports it ( which he does).

So what do we need to know? Thanks.

firstly hats off to you for taking on your DN, it really does sound like you and her dad are putting her needs first. CB as it stands just now is not means tested so yes you should be claiming for your niece, not so sure about tax credits.

I would speak to CAB re-benifits. Although I don't think that £500 is excessive when you consider this is a lower amount than our local authority would give you in allowances for having a foster child of her age, remembering your electricity and gas bills will go up with having an extra person in the house, your food bills, any school trips and equipment, pocket money for DN...the list goes on and on. Of course I do realise it is different as this is your niece.

Once more well done for stepping in and taking care of your niece, she is a lucky girl that she has family that love her and are happy to support her :)

£500 per month is not actually very much if he is on a high wage, he would have been paying the mother child support anyway, and probably a similar amount if on a high wage.

BUt it is child support. You are receiving money to look after a child in a parent's absense, and also remember that it will boost the ego of your neice to know that her father does care, he is paying money to ensure that she has what she needs and at least some of what she wants ....

I think you have what is called a "private fostering arrangement" so talk to your social worker about benefits.

It's not private fostering of its a close relation.

No this is certainly not private fostering as you already know HJ. The thing is that if the LA Social Services were involved in placing your niece with you, then the girl is "Looked After" under S.20 of the Children Act 1989, meaning she is not on an Order made by the court. The LA have a duty to decide on what basis the child is with you and as they placed her, it is clearly their responsibility to approve you as kinship foster carers (children are allowed to be placed with you for 6 weeks prior to an assessment being made of your suitability to foster your niece (known as kinship care) The case should then be taken to the local Fostering Panel to approve you as Kinship Carers for your niece. The other things is that the LA are under an obligation to offer financial support, a mandatory allowance should be made on their rates for Kinship Carers.

I can see what the LA are doing and it is commonplace unfortunately. They will be calling this a "family arrangement" and will be ducking out of any responsibility. They would be entitled to do this IF they had not been involved in placing the girl with you and that would be a family arrangement. By placing her with you they are "accommodating" her under S.20 of the Children Act 1989. Don't let them get away with it.

Sorry don't know anything about tax credits etc.

I am a retired sw after 30 years working for a LA as a sw and manager.