foster carer amd dla

colin13

hi checking on behalf of a friend,, she is a long term foster carer,,the girl in her care is 14 yrs of age and has learning difficulties,, would she as a foster parent b able to claim dla for her, it aint for the money to care for the girl. it is so tht when the girl reaches 16 the carers money stops ,so she could bank this money , friend would not stop looking after her just because of lack of money ,is this possible ty in advance

Oldernotwiser

colin13 wrote: »

hi checking on behalf of a friend,, she is a long term foster carer,,the girl in her care is 14 yrs of age and has learning difficulties,, would she as a foster parent b able to claim dla for her, it aint for the money to care for the girl. it is so tht when the girl reaches 16 the carers money stops ,so she could bank this money , friend would not stop looking after her just because of lack of money ,is this possible ty in advance

I've no idea whether this is possible but if it were then the money would belong to the girl. Also, fostering payments don't stop when the child reaches 16.

colin13

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I've no idea whether this is possible but if it were then the money would belong to the girl. Also, fostering payments don't stop when the child reaches 16.

I understand it belong to the girl ,but it was just the foster parent bit tht was she was worried about

lil_me

The girl being in foster care wouldn't effect her being able to claim DLA I don't think. She may need to have an appointee once she reaches 16, the social worker should really be advising of these issues and based on a case I have known of previously the social worker I think was the clients appointee.

Just found this

Disability Living Allowance can be claimed for foster children and young people who are disabled and for those who display very challenging behaviour. The allowance can contain an element for mobility. Up to the age of 16 the carer is expected to spend the DLA to promote the welfare of the child and to assist them in the child’s care. After the age of 16 the DLA should be spent in conjunction with the young person. Mobility allowances should be spent on promoting mobility, e.g. taxi fares, bus passes etc. Appropriate expenditure for DLA would include:

• Extra washing costs,
• Extra costs for holidays and activities,
• Fuel costs,
• Wear and tear on furniture costs,
• Additional clothing and footwear costs (sometimes these may need to be specifically made),
• Transport costs and
• Special dietary or allergy free products etc

I think this basically means if it was claimed they would ask what it is spent on etc

skipsmum

Hi, we did this when we were fostering. We had two children that we claimed for directly. They were both quite seriously disabled and we used the money as we use our sons DLA, on the extra expenses that kids with disabilities bring - decent wheelchairs, lots of bedding, tumbledryer, holidays etc. When one moved into supported housing aged 18 we were able to transfer handling the money to his housing workers as he wouldn't have been able to use it himself. With the second child, we transfered it to his adoptive parents when he moved on. We have fostered other kids on DLA who have come with the benefit either through social services or transferred direct to us. Applying is the same as for your own child, and (in my experience) goes through more quickly for fostered children with their extra social worker input.

play2day

Foster carers can claim DLA for the child they look after - both mobility and care rates.

They are also entitled to the carers disregard on council tax benefit so if your friend and her husband are both carers and care for the child for over 35 hours a week each - and nights do count - they will be counted as both disregarded meaning a 50% reduction in council tax which can be backdated until 1993 or 4 (can't remember which, sorry).
If the house has been adapted for the disabled child they can look into having the council tax reduced by a band for this too. For instance if the property was band c it will be charged at a b and the carers disregard deducted from this.
Obviously councils don't want to pay for this and will call the carer a substitute parent. However the LA are the corporate parents of LAC and so providing the carers do not have parental responsibility they fit the criteria.

Also if the carer meets the minimum wage requirement they can claim carers allowance for the fostered child. If the carer recieves a fee plus boarding out the wage they declare is the taxable earnings. If this takes them over the threshhold they can argue that the boarding out fee has been counted as taxable income but it is actually disregarded when calculating carers allowance.

Fostering allowances should not stop at 16. I believe they are 18 for SLD LAC. The carers can alos apply to be adult placement carers to ensure that they continue to recieve payment for her as an adult. This will however mean another form F.

PM me if you want to put your friend in touch. I will help her if I can.