Hi all. Newbie here asking for advice

[Mad Liz]

Back in May last year my best friend passed away leaving two boys (17 & 12). The boys have no contact with their father (due to previous domestic abuse) and very little contact with his family. On their mother's side there is only an unmarried uncle in his 50s who is not interested in having responsibility for two teenage boys.

While their mum was ill the youngest boy stayed between myself and another friend and the older boy stayed at home. When she died, Social Services agreed that the younger boy (who I've known since he was 3) should stay with me. They paid me a kinship allowance for this. The older boy has stayed in his mum's home, which is close by, and I give him emotional support (and dinner!) when it is required.

However, they have since stopped the kinship allowance (about 4 weeks ago) and I currently receive no financial help towards his care except child tax credit. I'm not well off myself as I'm in the process of building up a small company.

Currently, no-one (including the LA) has parental rights over him and they are now (15 months after his mum died) working towards an interim care order. They have not yet even carried out a CRB check on me.

Ultimately, they want me to take out a Residence Order which, as far as I'm aware, means that they will no longer have financial responsibility for him at all.

The boy is quite happy with me and wants to stay and I don't want him to go, but I do think it unreasonable to expect me to support him financially.

Anybody got any ideas on how I should take this forward?

Godfearing agnostic

[Kate]

Hi Liz and welcome to the forum [:)] I'm sure David R will have some advice for you, and I would also recommend ringing the FRG helpline. The no. is 0808 801 0366 (freephone) and it is open Mon-Fri 10.00-3.30. You may need to hold on or keep trying the no as it gets very busy.

Also, have you seen a solicitor? If not, you are entitled to a free half-hour consultation (when I had one the solicitor spent over 90 minutes with me in fact) You would need to find a solicitor in your area with the relevant expertise in family law.

It will be obvious to all of us here that you should get financial support to enable you to continue caring for the younger boy, but as you are finding it may well be a different matter getting this support out of the LA. You must stand firm, though - it would be costing the LA a small fortune if they had to put this boy with stranger foster carers.

[Robin D]

I back all that Kate has said.

You might want to look at Guardians Allowance which may apply to you (This is nothing to do with special guardianship orders). It's not a lot but if you qualify may kick in faster.

You also need to talk to the SW about getting a Special Guardianship Order as that give you the right to make decisions about and for the child. You MUST though mention in the same sentence that you would need to be assessed for an allowance! Do look at FRG advice sheet 22 here. You may find other advice sheets on there helpful in your dealings with the local authority including No 31 - Challenging decisions and making complaints!

Good luck ....... Robin

Grandparent carer in Suffolk [:)]

[David Roth]

Hi Liz

Firstly, well done for taking on the responsibility for your friend's children. I'm sure it must have been a comfort to her in her illness to feel that someone would be there for them after her death. It sounds as though you have been there for most of these young people's lives, so it probably just feels like a natural thing to do. However, the goodness of your heart means these young people will have the love and understanding that they need, but unfortunately it won't pay the extra bills you are now faced with.

It is unfortunate that you now seem to be entering into a dispute with the local authority over financial support, when you have just tried to do the right thing by these young people and don't seem to be getting the financial support you need.

It would help to know a bit more about the local authority's actions. When they were paying you a 'kinship allowance', how did they explain what this was? It seems to me that there are two possibilities:
One, that the younger boy was 'looked after' or 'accommodated', and you were being paid a fostering allowance. Or
Two, that he was not looked after, and you were being paid an allowance from section 17, which is money that can be paid for a 'child in need'.

Either way, I cannot see how they could justify stopping the allowance. If he was accommodated, then they cannot suddenly decide that he is no longer accommodated. And if he was a child in need, then the need for financial support did not suddenly vanish. Depending on how the decisions to pay and then to stop paying you were explained to you, it may be worth complaining about the decision to stop paying.

You will need to negotiate with the local authority before any order is made about the support they would provide for you afterwards. If the local authority do get an Interim Care Order (ICO) followed by a full Care Order, then as the person looking after him you would be his foster carer, and you would have to go through a fostering assessment - hopefully an assessment that was geared towards recognising your long history with the boy and your bond with him. As a foster carer, you would be entitled to a high level of support and a weekly fostering allowance, but the local authority would remain very involved in his life and you would not have parental responsibility and could not take important decisions without consulting his social worker.

Both Residence Order (RO) and Special Guardianship Order (SGO) can involve an allowance being paid, but at the local authority's discretion - the local authority's obligations are a bit higher under the SGO however. Whichever one you go for, it would be important to get a statement from the local authority, before the order was made, over the amount of allowance that would be paid, as they would almost certainly not start to pay after the order was made.

I do hope you are able to resolve this. If the children were to end up living elsewhere, in care, then it would cost the local authority far more than whatever it is they would pay you as an allowance. Hopefully it won't have to come to that.

It may be worth calling the Family Rights Group advice line to talk through the options - the number is 0808 801 0366, and the line is open 10am-3.30pm Monday to Friday. The number of advisers working on the advice line has recently been increased, so you do have a good chance of getting through fairly quickly, even if your first calls find the line engaged.

David R
FRG Policy Adviser

[Mad Liz]

Thanks, all, for your advice. Will try to call when I get a bit of time!

Godfearing agnostic