Is she entitled to financial help?

[HurrahWuff]

My DD is a single parent with a DD4. She has recently taken on the role of 'foster carer' to a distant relative (half brother's half brother's son) He is 15 & has ADHD.
His GM was his 'special guardian' (I don't know if this is the correct term) and was receiving an allowance of over £1k a month for this role. She is an alcoholic and was in and out of hospital so was giving £500 a month of this to my DD. Her 'special guardianship' has been revoked so she now no longer has any money to give my DD for the care of her GS.
Social services and the boy's school are aware of the current arrangement and told my DD that if she needs to pay for anything (extra curricular activities, replacing lost items etc) they can help with costs when DD provides receipts.
My DD is self employed and has ZERO disposable income, barely covering her bills.
The boy has lost many things in the last couple of months (school shoes, PE kit, keys, headphones, pencil case etc) which all need replacing. He plays football and does boxing at least once a week (exercise is important for his mental wellbeing and an outlet for his ADHD challenges)
The problem is that my DD also has ADHD and struggles with her own challenges so this stress and worry is not helping.
Is she entitled to any financial support? Social services imply that the GM was receiving more than she should have been and that any financial help will be significantly less than the £500 per month that my DD was previously being given by the GM. Currently she is receiving nothing at all.

[Froniga]

Has your DD spoken to anyone in Social Services. They should allocate a case worker to her. Also look on www.gov.uk I believe their is a Kinship payment available.
Blessings sent to you all

[HurrahWuff]

Thank you for the reply. I believe she does have a caseworker but no details about financials other than that she can provide receipts for stuff she has to pay for. They know she has no funds to pay for anything other than covering her own bills. They also know he doesn't have a proper bedroom and is staying in her loft (up a ladder- not an official bedroom)

[AmyandPhilipfan]

In general if a child is under a special guardianship the carer either gets payment or (in more cases) they don't. There's not generally a 'provide receipts and we'll pay you back' arrangement. If money is available for the child it should be coming to the family regularly.

If the child was under a special guardianship with someone else and it was revoked then there should have been procedures to decide what would happen to the child from there. Would he go into foster care, would he go back to birth parents or would he go to someone else under another SG. But it should have been done 'officially' and payments etc should have been decided.

I think there are support groups for 'kinship carers' so I suggest your daughter reaches out to them for advice.

The bedroom situation sounds dodgy as well. If the loft is not an official bedroom then I don't think anyone is meant to sleep there and I'm surprised social services are allowing it. I have known families who have received funding from social services to have a proper loft conversion done in order to house a family member.

[BlissfullyLonely]

This sounds like it ought to be a regulation 24 placement- has she been assessed by the local authority as a carer? If so, she would receive an allowance from the council

[opalsandcoffee]

child benefit? But special guardianship doesn't normally come with any sort of reimbursement

[Ilovethewild]

Please contact kinship care, they will assist.

if child is placed as family agreement then likely dd has no pr, and no financial support
if child is placed by SS then financial assessment should have been done.

SGO can only be revoked by court, so it’s more likely SGO was ended voluntarily.

are their birth parents around? Who has PR for child? What happens with medical, educational issues?

please seek advice . There is no guarantee of financial support and DD certainly needs to know what she is doing and how best to help child.

[HurrahWuff]

Thanks for the replies. The bedroom sitch is dodgy and I was surprised that the SW had not had a problem with it either.
I mentioned Kinship care to my DD which she asked the SW about. He had never heard of it and googled it while at her home. I can't believe he had never heard of it & am inclined to think he wasn't being truthful, although he did say that he didn't think she was entitled as she is not officially family (although has always been known as Aunty to this boy & is I guess related but indirectly).
The SW did arrange a payment for some of the expenses of this boy after my dd provided some receipts last week.
I think the boy can't live with either of his birth parents (drugs, DV, etc) and prior to the SGO with his GM had LA/SS intervention.