Fostering allowances

[Fosterquestion]

My family have been asked to, well start the process, of fostering 4 family children because their Mum is struggling to cope and has been admitted into hospital. We of course want to help but we both work full time so one of us would have to be at home. My wife would ask to take temporary leave but it would be unpaid and as much as we want to help we have our own son14 to consider financially.

We have read that fosterers only get £148 but is that per child or a set amount and is it per week per week or per month and we simply couldn't pay the bills on that so although we want to help then we wouldn't be able to survive on that.

Could anyone give me an idea of what you might receive to foster 4 children, 2 of which have SEND. 2 of the children are over and 10 and 2 of them are under 5. They are sweet and kind children but we wouldn't want to offer to help to be unable to cope financially if this went on longer than we are thinking.

Thanks in advance.

Hi. The rates differ depending on the child's age and needs so you'd need to ask the local authority that is placing the children what the exact amount is, however the rate you note would be what you get per child per week.

It varies area to area but the £148 is literally your taxable payment

Then there will be about £800 per child

So it will be about £4,000 per month - but obviously you will have to give up ALL time - you will have multiple meetings every week, be running them about everywhere, organise endless enrichment activities

It will be 60-70 hours a week - and you will NEED respite

I had one child at a time (with SEN) and I didn't sleep properly for years - we had a respite weekend every 2 months where I slept like the dead

You're doing an amazing thing

OK there is a big distinction between fostering children of your wider family and other children. When you foster children of your family it is often known as kinship care and one of the reasons LAs like to do this is that they get away with paying far less than in a traditional fostering arrangement. They may well try and pay you NOTHING and play the emotional card of "well they will have to be separated and be given to dofferent foster carers and wont see each other very often how would you feel then. They may even be adopted " etc.

Be prepared to play hardball. In addition financial agreements for kinship care are notoriously "flexible" ie LA often go back on what they say. You need to have evrything in writing. I have 4 siblings who were previously looked after by family members. They received a fraction of what the LA now pays for them to be looked after by me.

The going rate is app £55 per day per child. There is a small difference between 12 and over and under 12s. Additional payments for school hols, birtdays xmas etc probably £500 per child per annum. Big tax allowances mean you would take home after tax £1500 per week. Seems a lot but you will have lots of people to feed, clothe, take on holiday, get a big car to fit everyone in and maybe a bigger house too.

Whilst 80K is paid to the foster carer there is another huge chunk going to the agency or if an in house foster carer towards the buildings, infrastructure, wages and pensions of LA employees. The cost to the LA will be 150-200K so getting you to do it for free or for peanuts is a huge win for them.

If the LA mention a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) be very careful and do your homework first. Its usually a big financial trap !

You are also going to have a massive life chnage (as will your son). One of you will almost certainly have to give up work. Take a look at these links

fosterwiki.com/wiki/an-introduction-and-guide-to-kinship-care/
fosterwiki.com/wiki/sgo-special-guardianship-order/

Good luck. Be realistic. Fight for every penny you can get because you (and the children) will need it.

I foster under 5s and get nothing like £800 a week for each of them, nor do I get £55 per child per day. I get £19.60 a day for the one year old and £20.14 a day for the two year old. I then get my fee on top, for the one year old it is £75 a week and for the older child (who has additional needs) I get a fee of £158 a week.

so this equates to an average of £37 per day per child and at such low rates there would be no tax to pay at all. If the posters LA are similarly exploitative, and you let them, then you would take home 37 x 4 x 7 = £1036 per week. If you dont take them the LA will pay an agency 3K per week so there is quite a gap that you can negotiate on.

Thank you all for the info. I was quite shocked at the initial £1000 pw but thinking about it, that does go quickly, not least with school clubs etc etc. You forget when you have a teenager that just asked for cash to hang with mates😂

Even though I know it is money for the children, it almost feels wrong bringing it up with them. I have just filled out the in initial application for the social worker and they are passing it onto the person who assesses for fostering.

When would be a good time to negotiate the money? I would hate for them to think it is about that as any extra we have already said will go in a savings account for each child. That said, just been looking at some sums, even the bunk beds and set up stuff etc and I'm not sure there will be much change, at least initially.

One of you is going to have to give up work. That income needs to be replaced. Every penny. Why should you give up your income ? In addition you deserve to be remunerated for the additional sacrifices your family are about to make. This is before we even start to consider the additional costs you are going to have. Maybe you already have a 7 seater car for example but probably not. If you think you are going to have money left over from the £1000 per week to put in their savings account then I think you havent done your sums ! You need to raise the issue of finance from day 1 imo. Ask the social worker how much they would need to replace their income and pay for 4 extra kids. Get a pen and paper out and list the items. 1 Additional rent/mortgage for 4 extra bedrooms 2 Larger car 3 Additional holiday costs 4 Additional housing costs 5 Clothing 6 Food 7 Kids Activities 8 Replacement of your net income 9 Reward for the huge additional hours you and your family will put in. Ask the sw at outset whether the LA will ensure you arent worse off . If she says yes then go into the list. Do not move on to another item until he/she agrees a figure for the item raised. If she says you will be worse off then say you need to undertand how much you will be worse off and then go into the list.

If the children have sen you may also be able to claim dla for them. This could be around £300 per month each depending on their needs. If you are granted this you could also get carers allowance of around £70 per week depending on circumstances.
As above don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes. Be fully aware of what you are entitled to.
After fostering my child( with agency) I found other carers were getting over £100 per week more than I was. This happened for 8 years, lost me 1000s.
Looking after these children will cost a lot, people don’t like talking about money, foster cares are expected to do it all for love, would a social worker though???

In Surrey, you would get 957.92 for 2 U10 and 2 10+

You would also get a skills payment depending on the your experience and training.

At the highest level this would be 4 x 142.49 = 569.96

That works out at £1527.88 per week.

At this level, I think you will have to pay some tax, but most of the allowance will be tax free.

You only have to spend up to the child's allowance on them. You keep the skills payment.

In Surrey, you put £5 into savings, give pocket money of around £10, pay their mobile phone contract (reasonable, not top iPhone package), put £40pm aside for clothing. It's up to you what you cover beyond this. Obviously any fares to school need to come out of the allowance.

I don't think you can negotiate. The rates are fixed.

You can get a grant for bunk beds, and also for things like car seats.

Thanks for all the replies, really appreciate all the info. We haven't spoken to anyone about rates yet so not sure. We do intend to but didn't want to look money focused because we would have them if there was no allowance but of course it will make a big difference to what we can provide for them. 2 of the children have SENDs, would they get extra financial support allocated to them or is it a flat rate. One of the kiddie could really do with a lot of support as he is struggling at the minute. I've found lots of local activities and groups that i think they'd really enjoy and get a lot out of but of course they don't come cheap. Would LA maybe cover this kind of thing?

You really need to sit down with them and get it clarified- preferably in writing.

Make clear that you are not financially motivated but one of you will have to take leave of absence so will need to cover that wage in addition to the money needed for the children.

Clubs and activities can be paid for additionally, directly from the LA, but that needs prior approval.

Please get this clarified first- it's the basic steps of demonstrating that you are responsible parents! Don't feel shy.

If the child has special needs you may be able to claim DLA for them. If awarded depending on your income you may be able to claim carers allowance.
LAs do provide extra allowances for children with disabilities but they probably won’t tell you this.
I wasn’t aware of it ( my fc has disabilities) and when another carer told me I asked my SW who said I should have been getting it from the start. We missed payments of over £30k!

@LaurieFairyCake

I Would LOVE to know who you foster for!

I am a kinship foster carer. I get £148 a week, that’s it. No fee at all just the allowance as we are related.

I’m guessing those quoting high rates are fostering for private agencies and not the LA. When you foster related children there isn’t the option to foster for an agency. It’s the LA they are with or nothing.

I fostered children between 13-18 - so the highest rate

It was £200 plus a week for the child and about £150 a week for the care

This was 7 years ago and my last income from that year (monthly) was £1450 ish a month

It was a local authority, not a private fostering agency

The children did not have disabilities- at the time you could not claim DLA/child benefit/free nursery places - I've no idea if any of those are possible now

I've just looked at what the current payments are for the local authority I fostered for 7 years ago - these are the current payments taking off their website now

£251.22 for my skill level each week
£226 for the child payment each week

So it's now £2,000 plus a month as there's 4.3 weeks in a month

@LaurieFairyCake And here is my LA payslip for 2 children. Your LA is clearly very generous. This is absolutely not the norm and certainly not for kinship carers.

For reference that’s for a 12 year old and a 10 year old. 1 is disabled (autism) but not classed as disabled enough to receive the disability fostering rate.

Yes, absolutely terrible. Hopefully the OP isn't a kinship carer and can push for the full allowance.

When we did it the children we had needed so much extra curricular help and tutors to make up for their early years - the allowance pretty much covered it all

Not when one of them moved back in during Covid though (as she'd aged out the system by then)

@LaurieFairyCake She says in her first post they are family children so she will be kinship.

Actually loads in my fostering group have been able to push back on that depending on family relationship - my friend fosters her nieces and gets properly compensated

Off topic but the variation in fees and allowances from LA to LA is so wrong.

Not off topic at all! It's appalling that looked after children get entirely different services based on how well a county council manages their budget and how much deprivation an area has.

The problem lies with foster carers accepting such appalling remuneration in these LAs who are being so exploitative. Until foster carers in these areas stand up for themselves and their children (because it is the children who suffer too because it is hard for carers to sustain a decent standard of living) then these LAs will not chnage their ways. In addition these low fees put off others from becoming foster carers because they just cant pay their bills on these rates. Foster carers need to speak to their IROs explain the situation and explore moving to an agency unless the LA increase their rates in line with other LAs and agencies. Nothing will chnage until they do.