Foster carers make a real difference to children’s lives, providing a stable loving home with the support and encouragement they need to flourish and do well. For some people, fostering is a way of ‘giving something back’ to the community. For others, it’s a rewarding career that fits well with family life.
Fostering Allowances
Fostering Allowance Example
Fostering is a professional role with extensive training and ongoing support. We provide a generous weekly allowance plus expenses.
Because we are a local authority fostering service, you’ll know you’re helping local children. You can also be sure of regular placements, especially if you’re considering fostering as an alternative to traditional employment.
Our generous weekly allowances range from £220 to £520, per child, per week. We support you to provide the most vulnerable children in our area with a good standard of living whilst they’re in your care.
We pay the £520 per week allowance to carers providing placements for children with significant additional needs and meeting certain criteria.
On top of your weekly allowance, you will receive an additional allowance for Birthdays and Religious holidays as well as expenses for travel when taking the foster child to appointments and meetings.
As well as 24/7 support from our social workers and other foster carers we offer membership to FosterTalk. They offer helplines for practical support with advice and guidance on all aspects of fostering. There is also the opportunity to join Blackburn with Darwen’s Foster Care Association. A group of foster carers who act as the voice of our wider foster carers. They meet regularly and put on events for the fostering families and support foster carers with many aspects of fostering.
If you are a carer on our tier 2 looking after a sibling group of 2 aged 14 and 16, your payment would be £560.95 per week. You would also receive an additional £1753.88 birthday, Christmas/Eid and Holiday allowance.
This would total £2,430.78 per month or £29,169.40 per annum.
If you are a carer on our tier 3 looking after a sibling group of 3 aged 11, 12 and 16 your payment would be £1093.46 per week. You would also receive an additional £2,545.54 birthday, Christmas/Eid and holiday allowance.
This would total £4,738.32 per month or £56,859.88 per annum.
You should have registered as self-employed when you started to foster. You’ll need to file tax returns. Check with your fostering service what you need to do.
In your tax return, you’ll be able to claim:
- a tax exemption of up to £10,000 per household
- tax relief for every week you foster a child
This is known as qualifying care relief.
You may be entitled to National Insurance credits, which count towards your State Pension.
Fostering allowances are paid when you have a child or children in your care. Foster carers for Blackburn with Darwen are classed as self-employed and therefore responsible for completing your tax returns. You can find help and guidance for these through your FosterTalk membership provided by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.
