Adoption- credit checks?

jonnybeegood

Hi folks,

Does anyone know if Adoption agencies carry out credit checks?

Guest101

I'm unsure, but it seems like a good idea.

picklekin

Depends on the agency. I would very much doubt it for local authority ones (as it costs money). My social worker was happy to see an online overview of our bank accounts.

I would, however, recommend being up front with your social worker. I don't think they will count past discretions against you as long as you're in control now. Valuable life experiences are learnt from our mistakes, and can be turned to your advantage.

MKonrad

They do! Or at least the best ones does in order to secure that the child being adopted will get a home where the parents can take care of it

sheramber

Since they go into the details of all family circumstances I would be surprised if they didn't.

piglet74

I have previously worked in Adoption Services in Northern Ireland, and the checks that were undertaken scrutinized every aspect of your life,
Family relationships, money, mortgages, loans, car HP, etc etc etc.

I'm not sure if the same goes across other areas,

picklekin

Mine asked me to provide details on finances, there was a form you filled in that asked you to provide figures for bank accounts, mortgages loans etc. However they did not ask for any proof of these, we just showed her our online banking (which has our mortgage on there too). We didn't even show payslips. However we could have had a loan, CCJ's etc we didn't have with that bank that would have been overlooked. (Just to be clear - we don't have any of these!)

Social workers are very overstretched it seems to me, and just don't have the time. I would expect things to vary greatly from agency to agency, and even within one agency it would depend on the social worker.

At the end of the day, you ARE hoping to look after a child, and they do cost money (we are just over 1 month into our placement and have already spent over 1k, and we borrowed/inherited a lot). I know you could do it on less, but you really should be sure in YOURSELF that you can manage your money going forward, regardless of what any agency would say. These children have been through enough, without their new parents being stressed about money.

Guest101

picklekin wrote: »

Mine asked me to provide details on finances, there was a form you filled in that asked you to provide figures for bank accounts, mortgages loans etc. However they did not ask for any proof of these, we just showed her our online banking (which has our mortgage on there too). We didn't even show payslips. However we could have had a loan, CCJ's etc we didn't have with that bank that would have been overlooked. (Just to be clear - we don't have any of these!)

Social workers are very overstretched it seems to me, and just don't have the time. I would expect things to vary greatly from agency to agency, and even within one agency it would depend on the social worker.

At the end of the day, you ARE hoping to look after a child, and they do cost money (we are just over 1 month into our placement and have already spent over 1k, and we borrowed/inherited a lot). I know you could do it on less, but you really should be sure in YOURSELF that you can manage your money going forward, regardless of what any agency would say. These children have been through enough, without their new parents being stressed about money.

CCJs are public record so they'd find those anyway