Advice on Guardianship/fostering/change of names.

Evie82

Just looking for some advice really.

My neice is 14. Her mum, who she lived with, became very unrealiable and wasnt looking after her daughter at all.
My Neice traced her "dad" and through via the internet and after a DNA test it moved forward and she moved in with him and his family and they changed her birth cert to add him as the dad and take his surname.

Some weeks on, while living with him, they applied for the DNA results themselves, as previously only her mum had seen them. And it turns out the the man is not her dad at all. Its such a mess. Her mum is off the scene ( having conned money out of her "dad" and lied about the DNA) and my neice wants no contact. The man she is living with, has a wife and other kids and as much as he is fond of my neice, he now realizes its not his daughter and wants her to move on and for the family to take responsibility for her.

The family being my partner and I.
We have 2 little girls in a 2 bedroom house and at the moment our niece is staying with us as short term care over the bank holiday weekend. However I am wondering what legally we need to do, what options she and we have and many other things I havent probably thought of.

I am not sure if her "dad" had any legal guardianship contract or if the birth certificate naming him as dad put him in the role automatically. How would we go about making ourselves guardians?
How to we revert her birth certificate to remove his name?
Can I apply for Child benefit and tax credits for her now or do i have to wait to be made Guardian?
Can we enrol her in the local school without any of the above? Her school is 100 miles away now.

We live in a Council property and obviously its now overcrowded too, one of the girls is on a camp bed for now. Would we be likely to get moved to a bigger property and how soon?

As you can tell this has totally thrown our world upside down and we are trying to answer all her questions about the future but we know very little ourselves.

Any help or words of wisdom would be appreciated, however small.

lynzpower

The first thing you need to do is to contact your local social services department and ask to be assessed as an "informal foster carer" . With this assessment the social services will talk to the girl, to you both, to assess what you all need for your neice to be secure.

They can help you to bid for larger housing - familiariise yourself with the bidding process if this is in oyur area.

Heres the info from fostering network, give them or BAAF a call for more informal advice, they are both excellent organisations in my experience. http://www.fostering.net/

Be prepared to talk about the money. Family carers do get a rough ride from some authorities, and shoould BAAF argues, be paid the same amount as "normal" forsrter carers, after all if neice wasnt with you, she owuld be costing the state the same amount of money. PLus there are all the extras like child benefit, that until she is recognised as you being her carers , then you will not be able to claim CB or other benefits for the extra child.

Good luck, its a hard job, and its fantastic when families come forward to look after thier children under difficult circumstances. Just be very vocal about getting the support you are entitled to to enable you to do one of the most difficult jobs in the world. Poor love, bet she is totally confused, and needs that stability you can offer.

All the best xx

Dill

The poor girl! What a stressful situation for you all.

With regards to council housing, if it's a permanent arrangement that your neice is going to be living with you from now on, then it'd be worth asking the council if you can transfer to a bigger place. It's difficult to give exact advice, as it seems to vary a lot according to which council you're under. Some councils have a waiting list and others now have a bidding system.

I'd go along to the housing office asap and explain the situation to them and ask what documentation they need.

Evie82

lynzpower wrote: »

The first thing you need to do is to contact your local social services department and ask to be assessed as an "informal foster carer" . With this assessment the social services will talk to the girl, to you both, to assess what you all need for your neice to be secure.

They can help you to bid for larger housing - familiariise yourself with the bidding process if this is in your area.

Heres the info from fostering network, give them or BAAF a call for more informal advice, they are both excellent organisations in my experience. http://www.fostering.net/

Be prepared to talk about the money. Family carers do get a rough ride from some authorities, and shoould BAAF argues, be paid the same amount as "normal" forsrter carers, after all if neice wasnt with you, she owuld be costing the state the same amount of money. PLus there are all the extras like child benefit, that until she is recognised as you being her carers , then you will not be able to claim CB or other benefits for the extra child.

Good luck, its a hard job, and its fantastic when families come forward to look after thier children under difficult circumstances. Just be very vocal about getting the support you are entitled to to enable you to do one of the most difficult jobs in the world. Poor love, bet she is totally confused, and needs that stability you can offer.

All the best xx

Thank you.

How does "bidding" work exactly? My local council website has no info other than council transfers, which i guess would not include us, since we are overcrowded and not just looking to transfer.

The fostering info is very helpful, money isnt the issue and not something we had got to thinking about beyond child benefit etc, but to see there is a foster care payment to help look after her is very reassuring.

lynzpower

It really dopes depends where in the UK you are, if you like I can have a look for you if you let me know which local authority you come under?

Dill

If your council have a bidding system, it means basically you apply to go on their housing register (as a homeseeker or, in your case, a transfer applicant, as you're already council-housed) They then assess your situation and prioritise you by putting you into a category A B C or D according to how urgent they deem your need to move/be housed.

You then look thru their available properties and if you see one you like you can register an interest in that property, ('bid' for it). They then collate a list of all applicants who've bidded for that property and the highest priority applicant is invited to view it.

If your council still has the old waiting list system it'd be different, though, so it's worth you contacting them as soon as possible so that your name can get put on the list.

HTH

Evie82

lynzpower wrote: »

It really dopes depends where in the UK you are, if you like I can have a look for you if you let me know which local authority you come under?

Wiltshire - Salisbury .

We have now established that her mum left her with her "dad" in May. No legal documents were signed and her mum still claims child benefit and tax credits for her. Social services were not told of her arrival with her dad either.
So her mum effectivly abandoned her with strangers in May 2008, how would this effect us applying to foster?

Also, schools, can i register with a school tomorrow, to start next week in theory or do i have to wait for some sort of paper work first?

Strapped

Don't forget to put in a CSA claim against her mother - if she can't bring her child up, the least she can do is to contribute financially.

Savvy_Sue

I would phone the local education authority and ask them about schools. I'd have thought it would be possible without documents: this child needs to be at school, and she's currently living with you.

Someone posted a really helpful link or source of advice for people in your situation a few days ago, but I can't think what words I'd use to search for it - anyone help me out?

As for claiming child benefit, as soon as you put the claim in, her mother's claim will be stopped, AFAIK, while they work out where the money SHOULD be going. Be prepared for mum to turn up at that point ...

Evie82

Thank you for the advice so far.
Her mum doesnt work legally according to her daughters last knowledge, which wouldnt surprise me, so no CSA I guess.

The fostering allowance I read about, how does that work in relation to our existing tax credits claim, is that an income or not? will it effect our money? Do I need to tell them I have a relatives daughter staying here now?
Do I need to claim on our existing claim for her in the future or on a separate claim.
From what i read the fostering care money, would be too look after my neice, because they obviously cost money! So am i right in thinking the tax credits couldnt decrease my money in light of the new income because I will not be using it for my kids?

The more questions i get answered the more that arise, sorry.

lynzpower

Honestly Evie, your best option is to speak with the fostering team in your LA. Make sure all these questions are written down, so you can ask the duty officer when you come through to the fostering and adoption/ permanence team. Also to note whgen I used to work for wsocial services, there was a part time "finance officer" who worked with foster carers and prospective adopters, to help untangle the maze.