Special guardianship payment deductions

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Stefdvla
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jun 19, 2018 9:36 pm

Special guardianship payment deductions

Post by Stefdvla » Mon Jun 03, 2019 2:53 pm

My friend is a special guardian and cares for 2 children. He was employed but is now on income support of £75 a week, child benefit is deducted from the special guardian allowance and he was told to apply for child tax credit which he did only to have the whole of that amount deducted to by social services as they say it is s duplicate payment for the children and the law says they have to take it off, is this correct because I can't find the law that says this and I know another special guardian who works and they have no deductions other than child benefit from their allowance

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Suzie, FRG Adviser
Posts: 949
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 12:25 pm

Re: Special guardianship payment deductions

Post by Suzie, FRG Adviser » Thu Jul 11, 2019 2:54 pm

Dear Stefdvla

Welcome to the Family and Friends board and thank you very much for your post. My name is Suzie, FRG’s online adviser. I am very sorry that we were unable to respond to your query before now due to a current very high volume of posts.

Your friend who is a Special Guardian has had a change of circumstances as is no longer in work and is currently claiming income support. Children’s Services do need to re-assess their circumstances. It is correct that they advised them to apply for child tax credit and they are entitled to take this into account when assessing for SGO allowance.

You are absolutely right thought that they should not be deducting child benefit from a person who receives income support. This was clarified in a Local Government Ombudsman complaint against Liverpool City Council 12 006 209.

There is an explanation of this in our DIY Special Guardianship advice sheet (page 40) which states:

Children’s services may take into account benefit and tax credit entitlement when assessing what financial support they will provide by way of special guardianship allowance. They should not however deduct child benefit from the allowance if you are receiving income support.

We have a helpful letter letter 1 that your friend can use to make a complaint about this and to ask that this be rectified and that the allowance is backdated.

I hope that this will be useful to your friend.

With best wishes


Suzie

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