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Kinship Care?
marsamver
Posts: 4 Newbie
Hi there, Can anyone give us some advice on Kinship care in both England and Scotland.
Myself and my partner are currently going through the process of taking on a child under Kinship care, the child is not from close family on my partners side and actually lives in Scotland, we are in England. We thought it was the right thing to do after we heard he had been taken into care (currently in foster care). We already have two children of our own.
As a backup measure they are also arranging adoption incase we didn't go through with it.
We've been through the process since the start of the year of being accepted for kinship care, and have passed all the checks and interviews and home visits required so looks like this is going to happen sometime in the next couple of months hopefully.
The local authority (LA) in Scotland have said that under Kinship care they would remain responsible for him and therefore pay £50 a week Kinship allowance and the fact that we are in England would not change this. I've heard that Kinship allowances vary from LA to LA in Scotland but I can't find any info on what the situation is in England as Kinship care doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere.
The LA social worker has now came back to us and said they would like us to look into applying for a residence order to secure the child's future, but due to budget restraints they would not be able to pay any legal costs, we would have to pay ourselves for everything (we cannot get legal aid as we both work) and obviously if this happened then I believe the kinship payments would also end?
They have asked us to seek legal advice (which will also cost us) which we are now looking into. We've contacted the citizens advice in England, they have arranged a meeting with us, but have said we may need advice from Scotland CAB, but they will not even have a conversation with us as we're in England.
Some questions we would like answers for -
1. Can we claim child benefit for a "looked after" child when receiving kinship care allowance?
2. Does a Kinship allowance have to be declared as income or does it come under the foster care tax relief scheme?
3. Does Kinship care affect working tax credit?
4. Do Kinship allowances cease when a residence order is granted?
5. Do Residence order allowances exist?
6. Ballpark figure for the legal costs of a residence order?
7. Are any other costs covered for Kinship care by LA as they are in foster care?
I'm sure there a loads of other things we don't know about too, so any advice is appreciated.
Thanks
Myself and my partner are currently going through the process of taking on a child under Kinship care, the child is not from close family on my partners side and actually lives in Scotland, we are in England. We thought it was the right thing to do after we heard he had been taken into care (currently in foster care). We already have two children of our own.
As a backup measure they are also arranging adoption incase we didn't go through with it.
We've been through the process since the start of the year of being accepted for kinship care, and have passed all the checks and interviews and home visits required so looks like this is going to happen sometime in the next couple of months hopefully.
The local authority (LA) in Scotland have said that under Kinship care they would remain responsible for him and therefore pay £50 a week Kinship allowance and the fact that we are in England would not change this. I've heard that Kinship allowances vary from LA to LA in Scotland but I can't find any info on what the situation is in England as Kinship care doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere.
The LA social worker has now came back to us and said they would like us to look into applying for a residence order to secure the child's future, but due to budget restraints they would not be able to pay any legal costs, we would have to pay ourselves for everything (we cannot get legal aid as we both work) and obviously if this happened then I believe the kinship payments would also end?
They have asked us to seek legal advice (which will also cost us) which we are now looking into. We've contacted the citizens advice in England, they have arranged a meeting with us, but have said we may need advice from Scotland CAB, but they will not even have a conversation with us as we're in England.
Some questions we would like answers for -
1. Can we claim child benefit for a "looked after" child when receiving kinship care allowance?
2. Does a Kinship allowance have to be declared as income or does it come under the foster care tax relief scheme?
3. Does Kinship care affect working tax credit?
4. Do Kinship allowances cease when a residence order is granted?
5. Do Residence order allowances exist?
6. Ballpark figure for the legal costs of a residence order?
7. Are any other costs covered for Kinship care by LA as they are in foster care?
I'm sure there a loads of other things we don't know about too, so any advice is appreciated.
Thanks
0
Comments
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I have replied on your other thread.Mama read so much about the dangers of drinking alcohol and eating chocolate that she immediately gave up reading.0
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