Universal Credit – Child Element
Under Universal Credit (UC), a child is only a member of a claimant’s household (benefit unit) if a claimant has responsibility for them. Whether a claimant has parental responsibility depends upon the caring arrangement. A claimant can only claim the child element of UC for a child who is a member of their household.
Parental Responsibility
The general rule is that foster carers cannot claim the child element of UC for a foster child placed with them. This is because a foster carer does not have responsibility for a child who is placed in their care through a formal arrangement with an authority. It is the authority that has responsibility for the child, not the foster carer with whom the child has been placed. The same principle would apply to a formal kinship care arrangement.
If a foster carer obtains a residence order in respect of the child in their care, they can include that child as a member of their household for UC. The effect of a residence order is to give the relevant adult parental responsibility for the child who is the subject of the order. A foster carer with a residence order can include that child in their household for UC purposes and are entitled to the child element of UC in respect of that child.
Maintenance Payments
The rationale for excluding foster carers from receipt of child benefit for children in their care is that they receive alternative payments from public funds to contribute towards the costs of maintaining the foster child in their care.5 When a child is under a formal foster care arrangement, the authority looking after the child is responsible for providing their accommodation and maintenance.6 As part of this responsibility, the authority, often the relevant Trust in Northern Ireland, will make payments to foster carers for the child’s maintenance. The idea is that if foster carers were entitled to also claim the child element of UC, they would effectively be getting two shares of public funds in respect of one child.
The determining factor as to whether a claimant is entitled to child benefit is whether they are responsible for the child, not whether they are in receipt of maintenance payments from a public authority in respect of the child. This is important because, in some instances, a public authority has the power to continue to make payments towards a child’s maintenance, even when it is no longer responsible for the child. The Law Centre has supported clients who have been denied entitlement to the child element of UC where the former foster carer has a residence order, but the Trust continued to make payments towards the child’s accommodation and maintenance. UC should not treat the receipt of payments alone as the determining factor disentitling a carer from entitlement to the child element of UC.
Universal Credit – Disabled Child Addition
The disabled child addition is a top up of the child element of UC. The same rules of entitlement to the child element for foster carers apply to the disabled child addition. If the UC claimant does not have responsibility for the child, they will not be entitled to the disabled child addition, even if the child’s disability is one that would ordinarily give rise to entitlement to the addition.
Universal Credit – Carer Element
A foster carer can receive the carer element for a foster child in their care. To be entitled, the foster carer must have regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a foster child who is severely disabled. In other words, the general criteria must be established. The same rules apply regardless of the nature of the carer’s responsibility for the child.
Universal Credit – Housing Costs Element
An individual who meets the ‘foster care requirement’ is entitled to have one additional bedroom included in their housing costs element.
A claimant will meet the ‘foster care requirement’ if they:
- are a foster parent; or
- have a child placed with them for adoption.
If the claimant is a foster parent, they will be entitled to the additional bedroom even if they do not have a child living with them, as long as it has not been more than 12 months since their last placement ended or since they were approved to be a foster parent.
The additional entitlement for individuals who meet the ‘foster care requirement’ is limited to one bedroom, even if they have more than one child placed with them.
Universal Credit – Calculating Income
The general rule for Universal Credit is that only income expressly specified in the rules can impact a claimant’s income. Payments made by authorities for the accommodation and maintenance of children and young people in care are not listed or described as earned or unearned income under the Universal Credit Regulations. Payments made to foster carers, including kinship carers under formal arrangements, are disregarded. This means that payments made to a foster carer for the accommodation and maintenance of the child in their care are not deducted, in whole or in part, in their UC award.
Foster carers are further not considered to be self-employed and do not need to claim any payment made to them for the accommodation and maintenance of their child as self-employed earnings either.
Other Benefits – Carer’s Allowance
A foster carer who is otherwise entitled to Carer’s Allowance is not restricted from receiving it on account of their status as a foster carer. Payments made to foster carers for the accommodation and maintenance of a child in their care are disregarded in calculating the claimant’s earnings for Carer’s Allowance
Other Benefits – Child Benefit
The rules for foster carers in relation to Child Benefit are similar to the rules in relation to the Child Element of UC. Foster carers are not entitled to child benefit for a child placed in their care. Carers with whom a child has been placed for adoption is similarly not entitled to child benefit as long as the authority responsible for the child’s care continues to make payments towards the child’s accommodation or maintenance.
Other Benefits – Housing Benefit
The Housing Benefit rules closely resemble the rules of entitlement for foster carers for the Housing Element of UC. A foster child is not treated as a member of the household for the purposes of housing benefit. A ‘qualifying parent or carer’ is entitled to one additional bedroom. To be a ‘qualifying parent or carer’, a claimant must have a bedroom in their home additional to those used by the people listed as members of their household, for the purposes of housing benefit. A claimant must also have either:
- A child placed with them that is not treated as a member of the household; or
- Be an approved foster parent who does not have a child placed with them, but has had a child placed with them within the last 52 weeks.
A child who is placed with a claimant for adoption or prior to their adoption is also not treated as a member of the household for the purposes of housing benefit.
Other Benefits – Work Requirements
In the same way that foster carers and adopters can have reduced work requirements under UC, a claimant may be entitled to no work requirements or limited requirements if they are a foster care or adopter and are in receipt of New-Style ESA.
New-Style ESA
A claimant in receipt of New-Style ESA will generally be placed in one of two groups: the support group or the work-related requirements group. The group in which a claimant is placed will usually depend upon whether they have limited capacity for work and work-related activity. Where a claimant is placed in the work-related requirements group, they may need to complete the following work-related requirements: work focused interviews and work preparation. Again, a claimant’s work-related requirements will depend on their circumstances. A claimant who is a foster carer may have different work requirements, depending on the age and needs of the child in their care.
A claimant will not have any work requirements if they are the responsible foster parent for a child under the age of one. If the claimant is in a couple and their partner is also a foster carer, only the parent nominated to be the responsible foster parent will have no work obligations.
A work focused interview will be a claimant’s only requirement where they are:
- The responsible foster parent for a child who is at least one year of age.
- A foster parent to a child or qualifying young person with care needs such that the Department is satisfied that it would be unreasonable to expect them to comply with a work preparation requirement.31
- A foster parent who cared for a child with care needs exempting them from the work preparation requirement within the last 8 weeks and they intend to resume foster caring.
- They have become the responsible friend or family carer for a child within the last 12 months.
An adopter can have no work requirements for the first 52 weeks in which the child is placed with them.
New-Style JSA & Income-Related ESA
Foster carers are not considered to be in full time work. A claimant will not be treated as being in full time work if they are a foster carer and receive payments for the accommodation and maintenance of a child in their care.
Other Benefits – National Insurance Credits
Foster carers are credited with Class 3 contributions for each week after 6 April 2010 that they were a foster carer for any part of that week
