Universal Credit Conditionality for Foster Carers

Peaky

I'm trying to get a better understanding of how Universal Credit's conditionality will apply to foster carers. Here's the scenario:

- Couple
- One working 3 days/week, earning more than the full-time minimum wage for one adult but less than the full-time minimum wage for two
- One foster carer
- 2 birth children, school age

Am I right that in this case, because the foster carer can't work, the couple will be deemed to be earning enough (i.e. more than one full-time minimum wage) that no work-related requirements would be imposed on either member?

If so, would this still apply between placements, or would they then be required to earn two full-time minimum wages to be exempt from conditionality?

HappyMJ

Foster carers are paid by the local authority that placed the children in care. It's not a voluntary job. The foster carers job is foster caring for which they are paid. The income is mostly tax free and does not affect benefits. The hours spent caring count as hours worked.

Between placements the foster carer will be required to look for work.

Peaky

HappyMJ wrote: »

The hours spent caring count as hours worked.

While foster carers were deemed to be working full time with a zero income under tax credits, I think under Universal Credit they're deemed to be working zero hours with zero income but with childcare responsibilities that mean they can't increase their hours.

HappyMJ wrote: »

Between placements the foster carer will be required to look for work.

Are you sure? That would be insane.

Gaps between placements are unavoidable, and children can be placed with foster carers at very short notice, meaning that foster carers need to remain available.

There's also a shortage of foster carers, outcomes for children are better in foster families than in residential care, and placing children in foster families is orders of magnitude cheaper for councils than placing them in residential care. Driving foster carers out of the profession and into other work rather than allowing them to remain available for the next child to be placed with them would be a lose-lose-lose scenario: bad for the foster carer, bad for the children, and very expensive for the government.

Is that really how they've designed the system?

Peaky

I've kept looking for info on this, and according to the Fostering Network, conditionality doesn't apply between placements unless there's a gap of 8 weeks.

Above that, I guess they will start putting pressure on you to find alternative work. Given the amount of effort going into recruiting foster carers at the moment, that seems short-sighted, but at least it's not as bad as HappyMJ suggested.

pmlindyloo

According to this foster carers are not eligible for UC if they are a registered foster carer(even if they have no children living with them)

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/before-you-apply/universal-credit-eligibility/

Peaky

pmlindyloo wrote: »

According to this foster carers are not eligible for UC if they are a registered foster carer(even if they have no children living with them)

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/before-you-apply/universal-credit-eligibility/

Ah, yes. Thanks. That's to do with the gradual roll-out of Universal Credit. You're right that foster carers aren't being moved from other benefits yet.

What I'm trying to work out is how it will work when it's been rolled out to everyone.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

I thought at the moment foster carers can either claim to be unemployed and claim unemployment benefits such as income support or claim to be in full time work and gain employment benefits such as working tax credits.

Any fostering allowance is disregarded in full as income for benefits purposes.

Haven't looked up the rules for foster carers yet regarding UC. More to read

pmlindyloo

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

I thought at the moment foster carers can either claim to be unemployed and claim unemployment benefits such as income support or claim to be in full time work and gain employment benefits such as working tax credits.

Any fostering allowance is disregarded in full as income for benefits purposes.

Haven't looked up the rules for foster carers yet regarding UC. More to read

Good luck with that

Have done some reading and other than what the OP already has read can find no other information.

Suspect that it hasn't been finalised yet!