5 Conclusion
The benefits system provides assistance for those with responsibility for a child or children. With the exception of child benefit and DLA, this general assistance is means tested. It is therefore targeted at lower income households.
In order to navigate the benefits system successfully a kinship carer needs:
- information on their possible benefit entitlement, including
- what benefits to claim, how to make a claim and to which agency;
- what to do if their circumstances change;
- other potential sources of help, to include agencies that will provide advice and information on their entitlement;
- assistance as they take over responsibility for the child, both
- financial, to help them over the initial weeks until their benefits start to be paid using existing powers in Children (Scotland) Act 1995; and
- support to prove that they are the person responsible for the child, for child benefit, child tax credit and DLA purposes.
The varying levels of financial support provided by different local authorities from different budgets make it more difficult to calculate how such payments should be treated, and also make the provision of general advice across the country impossible. A consistent approach to kinship care would remove one layer of the confusion.
Specific assistance might be needed where shared or intermittent care is an issue. The benefits system does not lend itself to this situation, given that all changes of circumstances have to be notified and (apart from DLA) fresh claims made each time. Also, depending on the length of time the child spends with the kinship carer, they may be unable to access any benefits for the child.
Administrative delays occur regularly when benefit claims are being made. Reducing the time delay between making a claim and receiving a benefit would decrease the hardship many new claimants may face. This is of particular concern to those kinship carers unable to receive means tested benefits in their own right, but who become eligible when a child becomes part of the household. It would also be helpful if kinship carers could receive some payment whilst waiting for decisions on their benefit entitlement, using the existing powers in the 1995 Act..
Currently guardian's allowance is only paid in very limited cases. If payment of this benefit could be extended to kinship carers where the parents were not dead, this would provide additional support. It might be worth the Scottish Executive discussing with HMRC the possibility of extending the scope of guardian's allowance.
It is unlikely that the benefits system will become less complex, as it has to accommodate a wide range of circumstances. The aim therefore would be to ensure that kinship carers have the knowledge to work within the system; to have as few administrative delays as possible before the correct benefits are paid; and ideally to have interim financial and emotional support in the initial stages when responsibility for a child is transferred to the kinship carer.