Kinship care benefits following death of Guardian
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:47 pm
Our Grandson was born in November 2004, he spent his first few weeks with his Mother in a secure hospital facility in an unsuccessful attempt to get her to bond with him. After this they were released to live with the Maternal Grandparents under the protection of Social Services but his Mother kept disappearing for considerable periods of time, neither she nor his Father were deemed capable of parenting so he has been brought up by both Maternal and Paternal (us) Grandparents. Neither of the Maternal Grandparents worked but we worked full time so he lived with them weekdays and us at weekends, we also went to see him in the evenings during the week. In June 2008 his Mum gave birth to another Son (Father unknown) who was initially fostered but later Social Services persuaded the Maternal Grandparents to take him as well.
Change came in 2010 when my Wife retired followed by me in 2011, our pension income wasn't sufficient to continue the high financial support that we had previously given even with augmenting it from our savings. The Maternal Grandparents gained a Special Guardianship order for the boys in December 2012 and we believe substantial funding as Kinship Carers and they took responsibility for funding the purchase of clothes, shoes and many of the more expensive items needed. At the start of the Pandemic and lockdown in March 2020 we jointly decided to split the family with our Grandson living with us and his half Brother staying where he was thus giving us greater options should any of us get Covid. The Maternal Grandfather died in March 2019 and Grandmother in December 2021 after a short unexpected illness, after her terminal diagnosis she expressed her desire for us to apply for an SGO for our Grandson and to become his carers and her Son, their Uncle to do the same for his half brother.
Both boys remain in the Social Services Child in Need category for the moment until everything is resolved. We expected Social Services to help us with guidance, advice and support in obtaining the SGO's but they have refused saying that it was not their responsibility, it was ours and my questions about any funding to bring the boys up have yet to be answered at our meetings. They are very happy that the boys are safe, being well looked after, happy in their environments and the inter-family relationships. Presumably the Child Benefit and Kinship Care financial support payments for the boys would only be paid up to the time of her death. Very recently the SS have told me that they may be taking our Grandson out of the Child in Need programme at our next meeting on Monday 7th March and they will say that our situation is a “Private Agreement” and walk away. Our Grandson is 17, 18 in November so we think that it isn't viable to spend money on legal fees for something that may not be resolved before his birthday when it all ends anyway. What we would like to know is can they do that without our agreement, if they do can we appeal their decision, are we entitled to any additional funding other than Child Benefit, if so how do we go about claiming it and who from.
Change came in 2010 when my Wife retired followed by me in 2011, our pension income wasn't sufficient to continue the high financial support that we had previously given even with augmenting it from our savings. The Maternal Grandparents gained a Special Guardianship order for the boys in December 2012 and we believe substantial funding as Kinship Carers and they took responsibility for funding the purchase of clothes, shoes and many of the more expensive items needed. At the start of the Pandemic and lockdown in March 2020 we jointly decided to split the family with our Grandson living with us and his half Brother staying where he was thus giving us greater options should any of us get Covid. The Maternal Grandfather died in March 2019 and Grandmother in December 2021 after a short unexpected illness, after her terminal diagnosis she expressed her desire for us to apply for an SGO for our Grandson and to become his carers and her Son, their Uncle to do the same for his half brother.
Both boys remain in the Social Services Child in Need category for the moment until everything is resolved. We expected Social Services to help us with guidance, advice and support in obtaining the SGO's but they have refused saying that it was not their responsibility, it was ours and my questions about any funding to bring the boys up have yet to be answered at our meetings. They are very happy that the boys are safe, being well looked after, happy in their environments and the inter-family relationships. Presumably the Child Benefit and Kinship Care financial support payments for the boys would only be paid up to the time of her death. Very recently the SS have told me that they may be taking our Grandson out of the Child in Need programme at our next meeting on Monday 7th March and they will say that our situation is a “Private Agreement” and walk away. Our Grandson is 17, 18 in November so we think that it isn't viable to spend money on legal fees for something that may not be resolved before his birthday when it all ends anyway. What we would like to know is can they do that without our agreement, if they do can we appeal their decision, are we entitled to any additional funding other than Child Benefit, if so how do we go about claiming it and who from.