SGO and expenses

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swampydrill
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2014 2:05 pm

SGO and expenses

Post by swampydrill » Thu Jan 09, 2014 8:47 am

We as grandparents have an SGO for our two grandchildren, one is maternal and one was from the mothers previous relationship. We have had them with us just over a year, of which 10 months was as kinship foster parents, court awarded us SGO in October. Initially I refused to fill in a financial assessment because I thought I had no chance of getting anything, I then asked to fill a form in and did so at end of October, I still have had no reply, not sure how long these take.
I asked the social worker what we are entitled to claim back financially if the financial assessment showed we were too well off in their eyes to receive any financial assistance, she said to me to tell them what I was thinking of claiming. I said to her I would think that Suffolk has its own policies as to what they will pay for and that is what I am asking for, its like trying to get blood from a stone.
Is it possible for someone on here to tell me what we should be able to claim for, no matter whether financial assistance is agreed, can we claim for mileage to contact, meetings, court, cost of days out with parents, birthdays, Christmas etc etc, any help would be appreciated and would be more than I have had from social services.

swampydrill
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2014 2:05 pm

Re: SGO and expenses

Post by swampydrill » Thu Jan 09, 2014 2:20 pm

We were kinship foster parents and received full money for the children and as you say, we also got extra at birthdays etc. Are you saying that we should have continued to receive the same sort of money when being granted the SGO ?, not sure of that, is it an automatic thing, we were just told the money from foster team was guaranteed, money from social would be based on financial assessment.

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David Roth
Posts: 2021
Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:14 am

Re: SGO and expenses

Post by David Roth » Wed Jan 15, 2014 12:00 pm

Hi swampydrill

It is generally expected that local authorities will follow the government's means test formula to work out the level of SGO allowance to pay. The maximum payable is the amount that would be paid if you were fostering the child, with the level of allowance dropping according to how much income the carers have. I have been trying to provide a link to the government's means test foruma, but none of my links to it seem to be working.

There are no hard and fast rules about what other financial support the local authority should provide. The Statutory Guidance on Special Guardianship states that a placement shold not fail for the lack of financial support, and the Family and Friends Care statutory guidance states that local authorities should assist family and friends carers to avoid hardship. Basically, if you need financial support, you will need to make the case to the local authority.
David Roth
FRG Policy Adviser

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