Benefits
You could get disability benefits for your foster child if they meet the criteria and you may also be able to claim Carer’s Allowance if your foster child gets Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment.
You can use the Gov.uk benefits calculator to check what benefits you could be eligible for.
Tax exemption
Since April 2003 foster carers have been treated as self-employed, including foster carers who provide respite care and family and friends foster carers.
Many foster carers have little or no taxable profit from fostering. However, HMRC still require foster carers to do a simple calculation at the end of each tax year to find out what your tax threshold is for the tax year and whether you have any taxable profit or not.
When you are approved as a foster carer you should register as self-employed.
You can find more information on fostering tax emption and tax relief on the GOV.uk website.
Recommend a friend to fostering
We offer a referral fee of £250 to any existing Hull Fostering foster carer who recommends a friend or family who then goes on to become a mainstream foster carer for Hull Fostering. The fee is payable to the referrer when the new foster carer is successfully approved.
The referrer will know the new foster carer on a personal basis and not known to the referrer in a professional capacity.
The name of the foster carer making the recommendation must be provided to the fostering assessing team at the time of the initial enquiry or information visit to be eligible for this scheme.
Hull Fostering Network
Hull Fostering pay your annual Fostering Network membership, who regularly host foster carer tax workshops to help introduce you to the income tax scheme for foster carers, how to calculate your own tax threshold, how to fill in a self-assessment tax return and how you may be entitled to National Insurance credits, which count towards your state pension.
Opportunities to contribute to the service
All of our foster carers have the opportunity to contribute to the service and take on voluntary roles to develop themselves and others. For example, attending a recruitment event or contributing a case study for a marketing campaign, or being a mentor to another foster carer.
There are also some additional roles which our foster carers can receive extra payments for including becoming a mentor or babysitting for other foster carers.
