help for grandparent raising kids?

Sarahsaver

Someone I know has asked for advice.
They are raising their two granddaughters singlehandedly, this person is of pensionable age and I am sure not getting all the benefits they are entitled to.
Would they still be entitled to tax credits?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Zara33

can you define raising their grandaughters: for example has the grandmother got parental rights and responsibilities.

If so then i suspect yes she should be able to claim child tax credits, also she should be claiming child benefit and she may also be entitled to a residence allowance.

Paparika

money for the children can be claimed by parents or guardians, I guess they come under guardians.

CAB should help with advice on what to apply for

pavlovs_dog

i dont know how good entitledto is as ive never had call to use it, but if the website is of no use im sure a local CAB branch would be able to advise (and might be more 'user friendly' if they are not very technical

Sarahsaver

yes there is no contact with the birth parents, the kids were removed from them.
i have never heard of a residence allowance, will look into that, thanks to everyone;)
our local CAB sort of does not exist !

mutley74

should be able to get child benefit, tax credit and possible claim money via CSA from both parents.....

Zara33

Sarahsaver wrote: »

yes there is no contact with the birth parents, the kids were removed from them.
i have never heard of a residence allowance, will look into that, thanks to everyone;)
our local CAB sort of does not exist !

If the grandparents have parental rights/responsibilities then social services should pay a residence allowance of course sometimes they are not very forward in telling you this you may of course have to fight for this.

But of course reminding social services exactly what it would cost if the children were looked after else where.

Hope this website is of so use to your friend many many grandparents in the same situation as your friend.
http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk/forum/categories.cfm?catid=88

Zara33

Paparika wrote: »

money for the children can be claimed by parents or guardians, I guess they come under guardians.

CAB should help with advice on what to apply for

As birth parents are still alive they are not classed as guardians they just become carer.

Engadine

My husband and I have custody of my niece and parental responsibility, my sister died 18 months ago and my niece's father is a waste of space and is not allowed any contact with her.

We get child benefit for her and tax credits and that is it! I applied for guardians allowance but we got turned down as she is not an orphan. Even though her father is alive and we don't know where he is that means we don't qualify.

Never heard of a residence allowance, social services were initially involved when we removed my niece from her father's care but as soon as crisis was over they disappeared and refused to help us.

In Scotland the Scottish Parliament have introduced a kinship carers allowance, local councils are responsible for this allowance. However there are no set guidelines that cover the whole country each council is free to introduce it when and how they see fit! I am currently waiting to hear from my local council if we will get anything. With this allowance it depends on what section of the children scotland act applies to us having custody.

We are classed as my niece's guardians even though her father is still alive.

Zara33

sarahsaver just posted this link on another thread perhaps it could be of some use to your friend
http://www.grandparentsasparents.org.uk/upload/viewtopic.php?id=126

Sarahsaver

I dont want to go into too much detail but the whereabouts of the parents are not known AFAIK and the kids were removed by social services from the mother.
Thanks for all your help;)