We have a case where Grandmother is receiving payments of Kinship Care. She is getting Child Tax credits and Child bnefit for child. She is on Income Support and they have informed her that they are treating Kinship care allowance as income and have deducted this from her Income Support as other income. Anyone had a similar case

In England there is no such thing as kinship care. There are payments under S.23(2)(a) Children Act - fostering payments; payments under S14F Children Act - special guardianship order allowances; and payments under para.15, Schedule 1 Children Act - resdience order allowances. All these can be paid to a grandparent and are sometimes described as 'kinship care'. They are all disregarded in full for IS - paras.24 and 26, Sch.9, IS (General) Regs.

However if they are fostering allowances (in Scotland paid under S.26, Children (Scotland) Act 1995) the grandparent is NOT entitled to CHB and CTC for the child concerned.

There may be other Scottish Children Actprovisions I don't know about however.

Richard Atkinson

havent came across this and we have a high percentage of these queries. I would be interested to see the outcome of this.

are the payments being made through section 50?

Sme are but mostly section 22

there is also an issue in your case as the info we have seems to suggest that tax credits and kinship should not be paid at the same time if under section 50.

Weare awaiting a decision coming out any day as time goes on and Kinship payments are declared at renewal of Tax credits

i have been advising all clients to tell tax credits of kinship payments and exactly how they are being paid then let tax credits make the call.

we have came across few who are getting it paid through section 22. i think the issue when its section 22 is when it can be shown to be a regular payment rather than an adhoc payment.

i am fairly sure i have a copy of a presentation done by glasgow city council on this a few months back. dont know if it will be any use.

aNYTHING WOULD BE OF HELP
THANKS

if you send me your email i will send you a copy when i track it down.

Thanks
e-mail is
HigginsA@northlan.gov.uk

HI Ive just received a similar query so would be very grateful if you could also send me a copy or post a link?

many thanks

sharon

I would imagine the info we have will apply to scottish payments only.

For Sharon, see earlier posting on this thread from Richard (Dolge), which may help

Brian

Hello there Anne,

We in South Lanarkshire had asked the DWP how they would treat a kinship payment made under section 22 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 for post April 2004 IS cases. We were advised they would indeed treat such a payment as income since section 22 payments are not identified as disregarded payments as per paragraph 28 ot Schedule 9 of the IS Regs.

So I am not at all surprised that the payment has been treated as income.

However, we have raised a question with the DWP as to whether Reg 23(2) of the IS Regs (which provides that ‘…the income paid to, or in respect of … a child or young person who is a member of the claimant’s family shall not be treated as the income … of the claimant’) may be relevant. The DWP have yet to respond. Perhaps this may be a suitable argument to take to a first-tier tribunal?

I have spoken to John Campbell about this case and he has advised that it is a South Lanarkshire Council social work case and that he will/would be advising you to refer it on to us. My contact details are Lesley Stirton (01698) 452758 lesley.stirton@southlanarkshire.gov.uk.. Please feel free to contact me by email if you wish to discuss this matter further.

I look forward to hearing from you Anne.

Lesley