child residency order - any help for grandparents

grandparent_3

I have my 2-year old grandson living with me full time. Social services have deemed his mother unfit to look after him. I have been to court and now have a residency order in my favour.

Is there any help a grandparent can get in these circumstances?

The mother still receives the child benefit! - but apart from this, can anybody help me through this maze and see if I am entitled to any state assistance. Bringing up a 2 year old is difficult and expensive.

Thank you for your kind help.

Molly41

Hi,
Look at Mooloo's thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1736271

Its a long thread but basically describes her battle with SS to get any funding for caring for her DGD. She is now paid an allowance and you may want to PM directly. I know that she has been pushed for Residency but decided against it. There is also a poster called Gizmo who is on the thread who appears to be quite an expert!

Mooloo has a two year old grand daughter so will understand how you feel bothe emotionally, physically and financially

Good luck

mum24boys

Im pretty sure that if he is living with you and have got a residency order you can claim his child benefit and you can claim child tax credit as well. The tax credit should be sorted really quickly but child benefit may take longer as they will need to get in touch with the mother and confirm it, but i do know she wont receive any more payments from them until its sorted. Google child benefit and child tax credit, the phone numbers are there. Id ring them today im not a gran but have 4 young boys so completly understand, they are very expensive.

marshmallows

If you have a residency order then you can claim the child benefit, you will also be able to claim tax credits too.
Is this child your son or daughters child? Once you are in receipt of the child benefit you can apply for child maintenance

metalgal

i think that you don't claim child benefit but guardians allowance instead, which is slightly more than CB. Also phone up tax credits. Get a lot of good clear copies of the residence order to prove that you have responsibility for the child.

snoppydog

grandparent wrote: »

I have my 2-year old grandson living with me full time. Social services have deemed his mother unfit to look after him. I have been to court and now have a residency order in my favour.

Is there any help a grandparent can get in these circumstances?

The mother still receives the child benefit! - but apart from this, can anybody help me through this maze and see if I am entitled to any state assistance. Bringing up a 2 year old is difficult and expensive.

Thank you for your kind help.

Hi, im in a similar situation as I have my almost five year old niece living with me. I have had her for four and a half years . I had a residency order to start with although this has now being upgraded to a special guardianship order.

You can claim child benefit, child/family tax credits and income support which I am as long as you send a copy of the residency order to the above people.

I had no problems claiming these and the child benefit was changed over to me once I sent them a copy of the residence order.

It is difficult and expensive but my niece has come on so well considering how neglected she was by her parents as a baby.

I hope this helps you and I think its terrific your looking after your grandchild.

gizmo111

I am amazed by the amount of people looking after their relatives and getting so little help, either financially or by way of information regarding the procedures and options for these children.

You are entitled to the child benefit and child tax credit - the mother is claiming them fraudently. When you went to court with LA was the financial future of this child discussed with you by the social worker?
Were care proceedings taken or did they just go straight for residency?

Even on residency the LA can make payments to the carers.

C.C.L.

If your Grandson come to you via a referal from Social Services then it is more than likely that you will qualify for payment under Kinship Carer.
Unfortunately, it is not widely known about, and you will have to ask the social worker to sort it out for you.
Basically it is a payment pro rata to the age of the child for food, clothing, transport, toiletries and such. If you google kinship carer there's lots of information and links. Please do sort this out with SS as the weekly allowance is worth having and should help.
I wish you all the best in caring for your Grandson, it's a wonderful thing you are doing. Take care x

caris

Hi

We have had residency of our grandson since 2002, he his now almost 11.

The child benefit should be paid to you and not the mother. You need to contact the child benefit office and explain that you now have residency via the court - I cannot remember if we needed to send them a copy of the residency order.

You will also be entitled to claim child tax credit and possibly working tax credit depending on your circumstances.

You should also contact the CSA for child maintenance has the childs parents still have a duty to pay support for the child.

I dont know what else you maybe entitled to but those listed you definately will be entitled to receive.

In our case we have never received any support from SS, they have told us that because we went through the court for residency we are not entitled to any help or support, as it was our desicion to bring up our GC.

Hope you manage to sort things out.

kingfisherblue

Not really to do with money, but a point worth bearing in mind for those who have residency orders. I am a Brownie and Rainbow Guider and there are some girls in Guiding that are not allowed to have contact with their parents or be collected by them. When grandparents or other relatives tell me that they have residency, I request a copy of the order. That way, if a parent turns up to collect their daughter, I can refuse to allow them to take the child. I believe that schools and nurseries often request this as well.

The information is confidential - my other leaders are aware, as they might have to prevent a parent from collecting their child. I also inform my District Commissioner, just in case we have any problems in the future. I always inform the person who has residency that I am going to share the information with my leaders and commissioner, but nobody else. It is for child protection purposes. No other girl or parent is aware, unless the family have informed them. The paperwork is kept in a confidential file that is not left in the unit.