SGO allowance

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Charity
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2019 5:06 pm

SGO allowance

Post by Charity » Tue Sep 17, 2019 12:16 pm

I have an SGO for my 5 grandchildren, in which I get an allowance from the local authority fostering department, I have recently received information from them that I am having a yearly review for the allowance. I have had the 5 girls for three years and this is my first review, the local authorities are proposing to deduct my Tax credit from my allowance, that being 50% the first year thus after 100%. The amount is roughly £1110. Can I object to this? As it is a large amount of money to lose, whilst bringing up 5 children. If i can object could you refer me to where i can contest it.
Thank you,
Charity

Nannyloves2
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2018 11:03 am

Re: SGO allowance

Post by Nannyloves2 » Tue Sep 17, 2019 12:27 pm

Request a freedom of information. As not all local authorities deduct

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Suzie, FRG Adviser
Posts: 950
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 12:25 pm

Re: SGO allowance

Post by Suzie, FRG Adviser » Wed Oct 30, 2019 2:27 pm

Charity wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 12:16 pm I have an SGO for my 5 grandchildren, in which I get an allowance from the local authority fostering department, I have recently received information from them that I am having a yearly review for the allowance. I have had the 5 girls for three years and this is my first review, the local authorities are proposing to deduct my Tax credit from my allowance, that being 50% the first year thus after 100%. The amount is roughly £1110. Can I object to this? As it is a large amount of money to lose, whilst bringing up 5 children. If i can object could you refer me to where i can contest it.
Thank you,
Charity
Dear Charity

Welcome to the Family and Friends Carers discussion board and thank you for posting. I am sorry that we have not responded to your query before now although you have had a helpful reply from Nannyloves2.

I am sorry to hear that children’s services are stating that they will deduct a large amount of money which as you explain will be difficult for you, raising 5 children under a SGO.

Children’s Services are required to review their support plan at least every year, when there is a change in circumstances and/or if they think it is necessary. I don’t know why they did not review your allowance sooner as you have had the SGO for three years? This may be a point that you wish to make if you are challenging their decision. They should have advised you to notify them if your circumstances changed; I am guessing that your child tax credit was not in payment when your financial support package was first agreed.

Children’s Services are allowed to take into account benefit and tax credit entitlement when doing the financial assessment for special guardianship allowance as it is a means-tested allowance. The idea is that a carer should not receive duplicate payments.

The main issue here seems to be that your allowance was not reviewed for three years which meant that you were receiving the allowance for this period with no deduction for tax credits and now are facing a large deduction which may cause you financial duress.

You could challenge this in writing by making a complaint; I would suggest that you address this to the head of the SG or Kinship Care support team (the team may be known by different names in different local authorities) and copy it into the finance department and the complaints department. As they are allowed to take your child tax credit into account you may have a stronger argument about whether it is reasonable to deduct 50% and the full 100% respectively and to ask that any deduction be spread over a long period of time to minimise the loss to you. If you have any other proposal you could put this forward too.

You might want to query why a review was not undertaken until now and why you were not given specific advice to let them know when you began to receive child tax credits.

There is more information about this in part three of our advice sheet on DIY Special Guardianship Orders – information for family and friends carers
Here are our advice sheets (a) and (b) on support for relatives and friends looking after someone else’s child.

I hope this helps.

With best wishes

Suzie

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