Savings for Foster Children

[Fosterangel]

Hi - we foster for the local authority. We have recently been asked to put aside a percentage of the fostering allowance (about £50 per month per child) in a savings account for our foster children. We already give them all the pocket money/hobbies proportion of the allowance. We have to "steal" from the clothing part of the allowance to cover the costs incurred by their sports and entertainment like cinema and eating out as both children enjoy being taken out a lot. We feel a bit "miffed" as it is a bit late to tell the foster children we are giving them less pocket money or doing less two years down the line to bump up their savings account! Neither child will save any of their birthday money and often get over £100 in cash from their and our relatives for birthdays and Christmas which burns a hole in their pocket until it is all spent! How do other LA foster carers save for the future of their foster children?

hi
in my LA we get basic - food, heating, wear and tear on house etc
Clothing - can be used for activities too
Personal - pocket money and can be used for activities or presents or books etc

Pocket money is % of Personal (£8.42) e.g. 0-4yrs = £2.53 LT savings 10% = 3.36
Its all set out within the handbook. As soon as you get a child in placement you have to start LT savings, open a bank account for them (when you can with relevant paperwok etc)

Only a 16+ would we have to put aside nealy £40 per month for LT savings, but their personal and clothing allowance is quite high (how many clothes do they need? but i suppose bus pass and lunch at college might eat into that - i haven't fostered anyone over 13)

Have you not got guidance on this in your handbook? It has been discussed with me several times both in training and by my social worker

Anyway hope that helps a bit

Hi we have the same scenario. The children do gymnastics, tennis, swimming and holiday club events. It all adds up to much more than the allowance for activities. However we also put £5 per week into a bank account per child. £50 per month per child is about £10.60 per week and is in my opinion far too much. I would work out what you do spend (go to fostering network for a sheet that gives you guiance - it includes things like the extra car insurance needed etc) and then work out what you think would be fair to put in the bank account. I do think £5 a week would be fair and would be interested if the social worker said it was not. We also give pocket money about £2 usually in the supermarket where it is used to buy a magazine. Good luck - discussing money is horrid and it always seems to make the foster carer out to be mean!

Thank you both (queststarz and marriedtoagoodun) for your responses. We have not had a handbook but get asked about savings now at each supervision. We were told of the need to save for the fosterchildren at a coffee morning to which we were invited by the manager of services. I am really not surprised at the comment that some foster children were leaving care with no savings, as our experience of fostering is that the expectations are really high that we will provide a top quality of clothes, holidays, sports activities, club memberships and entertainment for our foster children. All the little things we used to do with our own birth children that were cheap or free like picnics, walks, bike rides, stream dipping, walking round town and window shopping, buying cheap but good clothes, are looked upon with horror by the foster children who want cinema, Thorpe Park, ten pin bowling, trampolining, horseriding and river fishing with all the fashion clothes and footwear and meals out too (eating out was a rare treat with our own birth children!) The fostering allowance does not stretch to this plus savings. I will seek out the form on the Fostering Network as all the little things (like the extra car insurance) are things I did not think of.

Fosterangel I do know what you mean. We have been asked to honour parents/siblings birthdays 'just with a little something'. Well where in the allowance does it cover 6 other childrens gifts!! But if you say anything you get 'the look'. Good luck!

Yes, marriedtoagoodun, we were caught out big time the first christmas when we asked our foster children what they wanted to buy their birth mum for christmas. They asked mum what she wanted. She said her favourite perfume would be lovely. Cost to us......... £50! It was enough for us that mum and children were happy but there is nothing in the allowance for this or gifts to the many other members of the birth family. Unless both SW's and our foster teens lower their expectations I cannot see how the fostering allowance will stretch to savings (on top of fashion clothing, fashion footwear, sports kit, the latest electronic games systems and games, i-phones, i-pods, entertainment and hobbies). I shall look with interest at the form on the fostering network website.

We're asked to save £2 per week for under 11s, £3 a week for 11+

Unrelated but a complete hijack to tell you my DD recently returned home after being LA and oh my god she is in no way prepared for the outside world and the possibility of going without or scrimping and saving. At 18 she has literally been dumped on her butt and i get no extra help to maintain the lifestyle she previously enjoyed. Needless to say that is an extra nail in the coffin. Please tell the LA you foster for that they are setting these kids up for a life of misery

On another note i heartily take my hat off to you for being so loving and caring to take care of other peoples' children!

Nail in the coffin i referred to meant our 'relationship' or lack of therein as mother and daughter

My heart goes out to you TTMYGH. The SW's raise the expectations of the foster children so high that we despair. I firmly believe that the children are told when coming into care that foster carers will meet all their needs for transport, sports activities, entertainment, fashion clothes, phones, music systems, games systems, pocket money etc etc. It is such a shame as we know that when the foster children leave us they will not be able to keep up this level of spending and it will leave them either angry or flat.

Reminded me why we foster when both teens came home from school to share their day (and homework!) with me over drinks and snack. It is the little things that make fostering worthwhile. These kids are brilliant, funny and so full of life. Can't put a price on that eh?!

LOL no you cant put a price on seeing a happy child! I must point out that my case is unique i know you must hear 'my child shouldn't have gone into care' but basically, mine shouldn't, however thats a total other story.

I do believe they will end up shocked. Not that they should be kept on the breadline but a normal life where you have to wait your turn for clothes, save up for any brand name items you may want, if something breaks, they should see the repair bill imo things like that prepare them for life after care which i would have thought would have been the idea behind being placed with a normal family? No one is given everything on a plate in RL!

I put £20 per month away for my fd. In my LA it's not obligatory, but they ask if you can put what you can afford away.

My fd is also under the impression that I should provide for her every need and want - this notion comes from the LA constantly telling the kids how important they are and from the SW's asking if everything is okay and is there anything that they can do to make their home life 10/10 instead of only 8/10. I refuse to buy all the things that would make her life 10/10 like screens and games galore in the bedroom, and designer this and that, and every activity that she gets the urge to do. Not because I'm tight or can't afford it, but to teach that getting everything you want for free isn't the way to go. How does it teach them about life if you get all you want given on a plate as a child? What will she expect from society when she grows up?

She is already talking about when she leaves home she will get SS to furnish her flat for her, and they probably will.

Well i could tell you what my DD expects but it would be very unfair i suppose.. i am shocked and saddened though. Ok the state has the paternal role by which i would say they have taken the children from families so they should support them, but when DD returned home it was like 'bump' no more of this no more of that.
She has to sort out her own flat and decorating and furnishing it is apparently what she needs to spend her compensation money on.
Its setting them up to fail or be unhappy imo and they are doing these kids no favours

Please tell the LA you foster for that they are setting these kids up for a life of misery

Hi TTMYGH, I agree to a certain extent but I dont know what the answer is. I don't think the answer is to deprive the teenager in fc of things that other teenagers living with their parents often have. They should probably have financial support from the state when they leave if the state has assumed a paternal role or at the least a flat set up and help finding a job.

I am sorry it is difficult for you and hope things work out to cheer you up

Actually i have thought about this and need to apologise in a way.. I've been looking at it from my own POV and i kind of forget that some of these kids have had it REALLY CRAP .. so they deserve to be treated nicely.. but not over the top so that they have unrealistic expectations of life after care.

My case (i hope) was unique and i am saddened to see DD not doing so many things that she used to do while in care because the money simply isn't there.
But its a good thing in another way because she wasn't taught how to cook, clean, manage money, and now she's learning. She still thinks i'm a mean spirited dragon though :( I believe they have a lot of help from leaving care teams until the age of 21 maybe more i don't know. but in my DD's case we have very much been left high and dry. I don't 'want more money' but it would be nice for them to meet halfway and give her a personal allowance still, that would help! But after 18, all that stopped.

IMO all the kids who are in the care system would not be coming from families where they were spoilt rotten and brought branded this and that, taken to ballet and foreign holidays, or even have use of a car.. I'm generalising here but you know the type of thing i mean. My DD always had food, clean clothes, and most important, a loving family. Things outside of our control caused her to be in the care system and things that happened while she was in care prevented her from returning. i do tend to look at things from my still very cross about systematically being removed from my childs' life perspective.

I think things basically need to be geared towards the life these kids are to expect following their exit from the care of the LA, so its not going to be a sudden bump when they leave and can't find a job, or need to borrow a tenner and find that they can't go to the bank of mom or dad, we've all been there!
How to budget would be good, too..
I just couldn't think of another child going through this as a young adult its already difficult enough for kids these days regardless of what background they come from.

And this is a bit pointed i know, but, i will ask anyway. If they believe that children need these things, why aren't they offering them to EVERY child?

Thank you all so much for your responses. I am thinking now that £20 per month is ok and we can manage this. I wish that the LA had opened the children a savings account when they came into care. The children would also have learned about budgeting as from day 1 they could have been paying in £1 each week into their LA savings account. Friends and relatives (ours and theirs) could also have paid a bit in too so the children could have watched their savings grow. I guess I am a bit "miffed" that we were told so late that we needed to save for the children. I will ask the children to come with me each month when I pay the savings in for them and maybe pay some money in that they have saved from birthday and Christmas. As they say..... "every little helps!".

Sounds like an excellent idea :) Appears to me that FC's do not have an easy task dealing with the LA from my many discussions with DD's FC .. mention them and they roll their eyes. Wish they would sort it out because its the kids that suffer :( Live in hope ..