Question reference: S6W-12325
- Date lodged: 21 November 2022
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Current status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 5 December 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether low-income families that are comprised of children in (a) kinship care and (b) foster care are eligible for the new Scottish Child Payment.
Answer
Scottish Child Payment offers financial support to families with children, and is paid as a top-up of certain qualifying reserved benefits, such as Universal Credit. Applicants must also demonstrate child responsibility to meet the qualifying criteria in full.
The regulations for Scottish Child Payment specifically define kinship care as a way of meeting child responsibility and so low-income families that are also kinship carers may be eligible for Scottish Child Payment if they meet all the eligibility criteria. We recently amended the definition of kinship care to ensure more low income kinship carers are eligible now we have rolled out Scottish Child Payment to children under 16. These regulations can be found at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2022/336/contents/made ..
Low income families that are also foster carers are not eligible for Scottish Child Payment. This is because children in foster care are considered looked after by the local authority and, as such, foster carers do not satisfy the legal responsibilities or rights that entitle them to child responsibility benefits. Foster carers receive allowances from local authorities to cover the needs of children living with them.