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There are families in every community in the UK taking in children and young people

“There are families in every community right across the UK who are taking in children and young people who can’t live with their own family for whatever reason,” explains Sarah Thomas, the Chief Executive of The Fostering Network charity.

“They may have experienced lots of things in their formative years and they need a foster family to take them in and to raise them as if they were their own.”

There's an allowance for the child's cost

Foster carers are given an allowance to pay for each child’s clothes and food but they're also usually paid fees on top to recognise their time and skills.

The allowance is usually between £165 and £289 a week for each child, but it can vary depending on where the carer lives, the child’s age and specific needs, and which fostering service the carer is contracted through. For most, it’s intended to cover food, bills, clothes and even pocket money.

As an example, in England a foster carer looking after a five-year-old would receive an allowance set by the government of around £9,700 a year.

There may be a fee paid too

On top of the allowance, carers are usually paid fees on top to recognise their time and skills. Many give up work to foster full time. But those fees aren't fixed and Money Box Live was told foster carers face a postcode lottery when it comes to what local authorities pay.

The Fostering Network submitted a series of Freedom of Information requests to local authorities and found 60% offer fees of less than £5 an hour based on a 40-hour week – but of course caring for children typically takes much longer than 40 hours a week.

“There’s no such thing as a 40-hour week for foster carers, children do not go home at 5pm. They are your family and, as every family will know, there’s no annual leave or breaks,” says Sarah Thomas.

Fostering is a devolved issue in the UK but all four governments said they recognised how important it is. Scotland and Wales said they are reviewing their support packages, Northern Ireland said that work is ongoing to develop consistent fees, and in England the government said foster carers should never be out of pocket.

Carers are self-employed

Foster carers are typically self-employed, meaning they fill out tax returns and manage their own pension contributions. That means that if there are periods where they are not providing care, they do not get paid for those gaps.

“This is the risk that you take, at any time the placements can move on – which is a good thing,” says Alison, a single, full-time foster carer living in Wrexham. “So what I try to do is build up savings to give me a buffer so that I can then fill the gaps. But at the moment you just get paid for every night that a child is in a bed in your house. So when they leave, the next day the payment stops.”

Foster carers get tax breaks and other discounts

There are some significant tax breaks for anyone deriving their income from fostering.

“Foster carers are exempt [from tax] up to £19,300 in annual income,” explains Brenda Farrell, Head of Fostering at Barnardo’s. “And they also receive some tax benefits then in relation to when they have children placed with them over a year.”

“A number of foster carers have memberships of different organisations will get discounts for family activities, as well as support and advice for budgeting and pensions.”

Kinship carers may not get help

Sometimes, a child does not move into mainstream foster care because there is a family member or friend able to give them a home. This is known as kinship care.

However, in some parts of the UK, those carers do not automatically get the same support as other foster carers. Alex emailed the programme to say: “Kinship care is something we considered but in the end could not financially manage to do for children of a friend. The financial support is minimal for these situations compared to fostering.”

“Local authorities, when children become looked after, will always try to find a family member first and then they go into mainstream foster care if they can’t find this,” explains Sarah Thomas, from the Fostering Network Charity.

“What we’ve discovered in our research is that they can be very different in the way that they treat kinship foster carers and mainstream foster carers. Very different payments being made to them, different levels of fees and even greater inconsistency, which shouldn’t be the case because if someone is approved as a foster carer then they should be receiving the same fees and allowances for the children. It’s the same child going into a different foster situation!”

There is currently a pilot underway in eight parts of England, providing an allowance to kinship carers to cover the weekly cost of raising a child.

You can change lives

“I like helping young people see who they are,” says Alison. “Every young person who comes across my door has been through a trauma of some description and sometimes trauma can define who a young person is. That’s where you’ve come from, it’s what you’re struggling with at the moment but we’ll work together to come through it.”

“Going into care can be quite traumatic,” Shelby, a care leaver, tells the programme. “I was a nice young person but I had trauma issues.” She hopes to become a foster carer herself in the future and knows firsthand the importance of that role.

“You can’t go into this job for the money because you’re never going to be satisfied. It’s the love and reward of seeing someone thrive… to see them grow as a person.”

Listen to Money Box Live on the finances of fostering, available now on 大象传媒 Sounds.

The information contained in this article was correct at the time of broadcast on 18 September, 2024.