Kinship carers make enormous sacrifices to raise children who are not their own – they do not deserve to be penalised for doing so, believes Melanie Onn MP
My great aunt Kath had a history of picking up strays. She was forever complaining about the cats which appeared out of nowhere in her kitchen, just because she happened to leave food outside the back door (for the hedgehogs).
In the 1950s she had taken care of my uncle, then after a short gap of 30-odd years she got me. I was six turning seven when I arrived at her terraced council house for the summer holidays. I never left. It was not planned, or at least I do not think it was. It just sort of happened.
As a pensioner she had her state pension, a small post office pension, and some rent from a lodger (who, after his stroke, she also cared for). I am not sure what she got to help pay for me, perhaps some money from my mum when she had it.
She must have struggled, if there were school trips she could not afford them, I think sometimes neighbours or friends families helped out. She grafted so incredibly hard. I do not think anyone ever contacted her at any point to see if she was coping or needed any help.
There are around 200,000 kinship carers like Kath in the United Kingdom today, three-quarters of whom live in poverty. By taking in their relatives’ children they are saving the state tens of thousands of pounds in care costs and keeping families together, often in tragic circumstances.
Research suggests that children living in kinship care also have better outcomes than children fostered by non-relatives, including being more likely to have better mental health.
Yet while foster carers receive extra support from the state for their efforts, kinship carers are often being denied even the bare minimum.
The majority of them have to give up work either temporarily or completely in order to care for the children they take in, and as a consequence they have been disproportionately affected by the benefits cap.
They are more likely to be unfairly sanctioned because of the lack of joined up working in the state system; for example, an appointment at the job centre being scheduled at the same time as a meeting with the social worker, neither of which are allowed to be missed or moved.
And while foster carers can receive fast-track support for social workers or child mental health services, kinship carers are usually left to get on with it themselves.
Unfortunately, it is all too easy for governments to take kinship carers for granted, allow them to make enormous sacrifices to raise children who are not their own, without offering them the support they need and deserve.
There are two small but extremely unfair issues which the government could solve tomorrow with very little cost, political or financial. They are exemptions for kinship carers to the two-child limit on tax credits, and the one-child limit for the Sure Start maternity grant.
A constituent of mine took in her two nieces when her sister passed away a few years ago. Now she and her partner are expecting their own child, their first. This family will not be entitled to tax credits or Sure Start for their own child. Had they already had a child of their own for whom they claimed tax credits and put in a later claim for her niece, this would have been accepted and all the children would have been eligible for tax credits. As a result of this rule, they are missing out on up to £3,000 this year.
This is an unfair anomaly in the law and I am calling on the government to amend it in the budget next month. In the debate I held in parliament on this subject this week, the welfare minister said she would look into these suggestions and give them careful consideration. I will keep raising this until kinship carers are no longer penalised for the amazing work they do.
––––––––––––
Melanie Onn is the member of parliament for Great Grimsby. She tweets at @OnnMel
––––––––––––