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Sophie did not hesitate when her two grandchildren needed urgently caring for after their mother suffered a mental health breakdown. Almost four years on, she says she has been left on the brink of poverty after remaining their main carer – but without any financial support. Birmingham Children’s Trust classified the placement as a family arrangement, despite putting plans in place to say the children “should not be removed” from Sophie’s care.
Her situation is mirrored across England and Wales, a charity said, with thousands of family members struggling to care financially for their young relatives because there is no specific allowance they can apply for.
Sophie is battling for recognition as a kinship foster carer, but has so far been refused by Birmingham Children’s Trust. She gave up working for a year as she transitioned into a single parent. She said it was “a path [she] never anticipated” and left her in debt, with only Universal Credit and child benefit to help get by.
Rhiannon Clapperton, of the charity Kinship, said: “If a social worker has asked you to care for a child informally, outside of kinship foster care arrangement, but are also saying it is not safe to send the child home, then it is not an informal care arrangement. You should be assessed, supported and paid an allowance as a kinship foster carer.”
Kinship’s Make or Break report in October revealed that 47% of kinship carers rate the information for financial support provided by their local authority as poor or very poor.
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