Foster carers allowance

JulesBC

I applied for a loan to buy a car with John Lewis Finance and I was advised that my income as a Foster Carer was no longer counted as an income and I could not get a loan.  Is there a loan company that will take fostering allowance?  I gave up my full time job to do this vocational career but I really need a car to be able to work.  
Thank you 

MinuteNoodles

Probably some of the sub-prime lenders will, I know the ones that advertise on TV with 1333% APRs do. 
Whilst you need a car you don't need an expensive car. One that costs you several hundred quid to a couple of grand will do the job just fine. The £250 Corsa my sis in law has just sold lasted her 3 years and only needed about the same again in repairs over that time. She got extravagant this time and bought a £1200 car but managed to get it for £700 after P/Xing the Corsa.
Tons of 12,13 year old or so Ford Focuses, Vauxhall Astras and the like sub £1000 that have plenty of life left in them.

jonesMUFCforever

Do you not qualify for motability car ? Just asking as I do not know the answer?

onlyfoolsandparking

Unfortunately foster carer income isn't classed as income as the majority of foster carers fall into a 'tax exempt' bracket which is HMRC approved, you'd think any lender would accept being HMRC approved as a good thing so to speak but there you go. Actually the money you receive is classed as an 'allowance' (I know 'allowance' is in your title lol)not taxable earnings and the majority of lenders don't look too favourably on this type of employment even though the chances of being made redundant are virtually zero.

Have you tried your own bank, at least they will be able to see what is actually being paid in etc, don't go down the route of applying to one of the billion % apr loan companies that's asking for trouble.   

[Deleted User]

Friends of ours fostered for a while they were warned never to take the income for granted which was good advice as they sometimes went weeks with no one to care for.

onlyfoolsandparking

venison said:

Friends of ours fostered for a while they were warned never to take the income for granted which was good advice as they sometimes went weeks with no one to care for.

Which is true in some circumstances but not all, there are quite a few different types of fostering, some where the income is guaranteed, depends which type of fostering OP is doing but I accept your point.

gizmo111

jonesMUFCforever said:

Do you not qualify for motability car ? Just asking as I do not know the answer?

Motability is for people with a disability, I thought?