Help for grandparents?

D&DD

Can anyone advise me please?
2 different families I support have/will have their grandchildren living with them for various reasons.
Family 1 has 2 grandchildren,longterm at this moment in time no chance of parent regaining custody..
Family 2 has currently 1 grandchild coming to live with her this week as emergency placement and has been asked to consider permanent residency..

Both families already have children with SNeeds and are getting by on Income support etc.
Are there any benefits which they can claim for their grandchildren.
Family 1,mother still claims everything and kids have been at Nan's for 4 months now,she's really struggling..
Family 2 are willing to transfer child benefit but not sure how to do it?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Zara33

Both families need to apply for child benefit so they get the money they are entitled to not the parents. The key benefit is child benefit once they secure this the rest of the benefits they are entitled to will be easy enough to get e.g child tax credits.
Social services should help out with family 2 especially as they have been placed with the grandparents as an emergency placement. Also social services can make payments to both families.

lil_me

Agree with Zara completely, the mother isn't entitled to benefits for the children if they are not living with her. SS should be supporting the family who are doing the emergency caring role! Welfare Rights officers may be able to advise what else they will be entitled to when the child benefit is claimed (which they need to do first) based on ages, income, savings, earnings etc.

lilysgarden

Are social services involved? If not, then they need to be! Basically they are offering 'kinship care' which is exactly the same as being a foster carer, but it's a family member doing the caring rather than a total stranger. By getting social services involved, both sets of grandparents can claim a weekly allowance for the caring role (in my area I think it's around £47 a week), proper support and training to meet the children's needs, plus they should be entitled to any building work etc that might make the caring role easier (such as ramps put in the house if the child is in a wheelchair).

As for family claiming for the children, I'm pretty sure this is technically illegal as the mother is claiming benefits she isn't entitled to. If family 2 contact the child benefit office, they can advise on how this can be done. When grandparents become kinship carers, they are assigned to an AFO (Adoption and Fostering Officer) who gives them all the advice they need, points them in the right direction for support, and ensures their carers allowance is paid correctly. If they can prove they have a valid reason for not notifying social services earlier of their situation, there is a possibility of getting carers allowance backdated to when they started caring.

Social services are then also responsible for ensuring that the child is able to access everything they need while living with their grandparents, so if they struggle getting them to school or anything, they may be able to help with the financial cost. Depending on where they are and the state of the finances of their local social services, social services may try to talk them into becoming Special Guardians. This is simply a middle ground between fostering and adoption and can work really well for some children and young people. But I don't recommend it to anyone as becoming a Special Guardian means that social services are no longer bound by law to support the carers financially. I sort of see it as a way to get foster carers caring for free!

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but if you have more questions or think of anything else you want to know, feel free to ask or message me!

Good luck, Nik x

D&DD

Thanks so much for your answers I thought they should be entitled to some help through child benefit at least..I have advised both families to make appointments with the benefits advisor at our local carers centre.They will help them with forms etc.

Family 1 Nan has a social worker (so has her daughter) due to her 3 other children all being ASD/ADHD with severe learning difficulties on top.Her daughter (mum) is only 15 and has her own issues..it's a real mess and SS are currently not helping at all..Nan is at the end of her tether but caring remarkably well with the grandchildren (2 and 2 months)she is just very worried about how she can feed them all..

Family 2 is a cross county placement which presents its own problems..Dad of child has mental health probs and child was taken into care due to violence in the home.She is worried as she has to start from scratch ie no cot,clothes etc

lil_me

Get them to ask the Social Worker for help, if they don't then complain to their line manager, take it higher and higher until they get the support they need. Social services have a duty of care, especially to the family who they have given emergency responsibility to, they should be doing their job properly! As Nik mentioned their responsibilities especially with looked after children is vast and they should be ensuring the grandparents are able to financially cope at the very least. Carers centre will hopefully be able to assist with the complaints aswell, ours are fantastic.

My best wishes to the families, neither sounds like a pleasant situation to be involved in and I hope they manage to provide the little ones with a better future.

lilysgarden

For Family 1, COMPLAIN COMPLAIN COMPLAIN! They are entitled to help and support, if any member of social services isn't giving it, then put in a complaint! The grandparent is entitled to independent support,advice and advocacy. If you want, pm me with their area and I'll see what independent advocates are in their area that specialise in special needs. Otherwise, social services are obligued (sp?!) by law to provide this information to the family. The advocate can listen to the whole story, advise on what their rights are and how to make complaints as well as supporting them through the complaints process. Is the grandmother a member of any local support groups in her area for families of children with special needs? If so, they should also be able to point her in the direction of an advocate.

As for family 2, by becoming a kinship carer, the grandparents are entitled to all the help that any other foster carer is. Social services have a responsibility to provide cots, prams and any other equipment needed for the child and by law, must provide it before the child is placed with them. The kinship carers allowance will include a small amount for clothes etc although not much. Also, any child, regardless of age or who they go to live with, is entitled to a small 'care grant'. This money is paid to the carers for anything the child needs, such as clothing, toys etc, as soon as they come into care (many come in with just the clothes on their backs). This is usually around £200. Again not much, but a start. Alot of carers also help each other out by sharing equipment. There may be a foster carer in the area who doesn't have a child with them who needs a cot and can therefore lend it to this grandparent. They need to talk to the social worker and ask for these things.

D&DD

Just wanted to say a huge thankyou to you all for the wonderful advice given.
Family 2 had multi-agency meeting today and it was agreed for kinship care for the present, pending review in 6 months as a new mental health support has been put in place for the parents with a view to supporting their future involvement with their daughter :T
Nan asked me to pass on huge thanks from her as she felt she went in so informed she didn't feel intimidated.You stars!!

Family 1 is still a 'work in progress' but I have a meeting tomorrow with some people who may be able to help out and we have managed to secure funding for some temporary respite for Nan

You've made a huge difference for both families and to see the smiles on their faces after many difficult weeks/months is fantastic thankyou so much :T

lil_me

Lovely to hear when things have improved.

Make sure they keep on SS tails, if allowed to they can let the support slip, does sound as if kinship is appropriate in the case of family if they are making sure there is continual family support, just dumping children elsewhere doesn't help anyone. Make sure they get the support they are entitled to.

Couple of sites you might find useful for them
http://www.grandparentsplus.org.uk/
http://www.grandparentsasparents.org.uk/