Universal credit

[Mcpheenanny]

I am looking into fostering. I believe I have the ability and I have a spare room. I currently work in a school. I am single and have grown up children living away in their own places.

It's really hard to find out amounts for fees and allowances but what I have found would be less than I take home currently (for 1 child, I would be very happy to take sibling groups but I'm doing my sums based on 1 child)

I used turn2us calculator and it says I could claim UC. This would give me more money than I take home which means I could save for empty bed times

So, do foster carers claim UC? Is it easy?

I'm pretty sure you get a "wage" from being a foster carer. Well in my area you do and it's higher than a lot of full time jobs. Not sure if you were to get this if you would be entitled to UC

Sorry just realised you mentioned fees and allowances. I'm assuming your looking at leaving your job in the school to do foster caring if your talking about universal credit?

I found this online, OP

www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Foster-carers-and-benefits/Can-I-claim-Universal-Credit

In my experience you can claim UC, the money from the fostering allowance would not count as income as you would not receive the child element on UC. You would be in the work prep group - which would mean infrequent appointments at the job centre. However the times in between placements is trickier and you may be asked to look for work.
I’m sorry I can’t remember about the housing element though - as in if you rent your property.

I own my home (mortgaged)

Can you apply if you've resigned from a job? I;ve never claimed benefits before so totally clueless

I’m with an agency. I love it when I read about the wage you get as a foster carer.
There are 2 elements to the wage, 49% is to look after the child’s needs 51% is carers professional allowance.
I receive £380 per week. 51% of this is £193.
So that works out at around £27 per day.
As my partner works we don’t get any UC.
Don’t know of any full time jobs with no sick pay/holiday pay where you earn £193 per week.
I’m not complaining as we don’t do it for the money and I know a lot of LA pay even less.

My LA pay from about £140-170 a week per child. This is expected to cover basically everything for the child.

Agencies in our area pay about twice that.

Our LA pay the allowance for the child then a professional fee for the carer. This increases as the carer completes more training.
Our LA also gives festival and birthday allowances along with free council tax. I think it is one of the better authorities.
However this was all introduced a few years ago when carers complained that other LAs were giving much more support and training.