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1 Introduction
The Scottish Executive is developing its national fostering and kinship care strategy. As part of the research for this work it became apparent that an understanding of the benefit system as it applies to kinship care was required. This report aims to describe this, as well as considering related issues that kinship carers may face when attempting to access their benefit entitlement.
Kinship care is defined for the purposes of this report as a main full time care arrangement provided by a member of the child's extended family or wider network of friends. In benefit terms, a carer is a person who provides assistance for a disabled person, child or adult. There are specific criteria for this term to be applied. Thus the report uses the term kinship carer to refer to a member of a child's family or a friend that is responsible for the child.
This report considers:
- a factual, contextual description of benefits and tax credits as they relate to and impact on any household where children and young people up to the age of 18 are resident;
- a set of scenarios that illustrate this and demonstrate the maximum benefit entitlement for kinship carers that accrues from having dependent children and young people in the household;
- an examination of the issues that may prevent households receiving their entitlements;
- an indication of the types of assistance which could enable such households to access the benefits system more easily.
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