ruby7
Bronze Member
Approved prospective adopter
Posts: 96 
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Post by ruby7 on May 6, 2014 19:12:32 GMT
Hello all, sorry if this is elsewhere I could not find.
we are a full- time working couple. We will be adopting siblings of school age. We have been told we will get some sort of an allowance. We know it will be means tested. I have to pay a higher tax rate at the moment. We have a high morgage (reduced the term 2,000 per mth) I will get the standard package for adoption leave - half pay reducing to statutory adoption pay. Zero pay for last 3 months. We don't have much left over after bills and food, we don't spend money on swanky restaurants and buy loads of expensive clothes or anything like that. We are so worried that they will say we are not entitled to an allowance, or what they offer just won't cover it. We just don't think we can manage without financial support.
I know we will get 250 per child start up. Which only really covers the beds and maybe a cheap rug
Questions are:
has anyone with 2 incomes been granted adoption allowance, and how much?
did you have to fight for it? T
What tips do you have for broaching the issue?
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Post by swimchic on May 6, 2014 19:15:46 GMT
Congratulations on your match!
We got a £250 settling in fee, plus expenses from when we did intro's.
You may also qualify for child benefit too.
Ask, nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Swimchic
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Post by kstar on May 6, 2014 21:12:38 GMT
I would get some kind of commitment from them if you can't manage without it. I am a single parent on a good but by no means excessive wage - I am a teacher. I filled in all the paperwork on placement and was only given introduction expenses in full. No settling in fee, no allowance. Just the £20 a week child benefit. I am not entitled to any kind of tax credits or anything either because it doesn't take unpaid adoption leave into account, it's based on last tax year's income when I was on full pay.
Not trying to scare you - every authority is different and so is every child. I just wouldn't rely on getting it unless you have it in writing! Some people don't even get introduction costs paid (mine were £900 due to long distance travelling and accommodation).
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Post by gilreth on May 6, 2014 21:26:39 GMT
There is an adoption allowance for siblings - at least in area we live in and also for difficult to place children. Not certain that it is means tested but I do know it varies a lot from authority to authority. We get nothing I must add but adopted a singleton and we are both higher-rate tax payers (in my case that varies year on year & it is only just for DH). We did get £670 on Sqk's moving in (£500 settling in and court fees) and we do get child benefit but that is it.
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Post by ladybug on May 6, 2014 22:07:13 GMT
We were told our agency would pay upto £500 settling in fee per child and pay for hotel during intros as we live around 60 miles from the agency! The link we are currently pursuing is not with our agency so not sure what if any the settling in fee would be.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2014 4:37:28 GMT
I was under the impression that there are very few adoption allowances being given out these days. I may be wrong, but I've seen very few people on the boards in the past few years who are actually getting one. I think if it's one child you definately don't get one and I'm not sure if you even get one if you adopt two, I don't know.
When I adopted my two 12 years ago we got around £500 settling in allowance, they paid for our accomodation during intro's and we did get an allowance as it was two children. The allowance was just under £200/month, so £98/child, which was supposed to be until they are 18. But in the past few years they keep trying to take if off me. It is means tested and a few years ago they were desperately trying to stop paying it, so ex told them in no uncertain terms that if they stopped the payment he would take DD's round there and leave them on their doorstep. A deal is a deal, and if they agreed to pay it,they then can't change their mind a few years later and stop paying it!
Funnily enough we heard no more, but they still send forms every few years asking if our financial circumstances have changed. I sent back the last lot of forms informing then that myself and ex had split up, I was still unable to work, and could they send me some more money as I now have less money to live on than before, and funnily enough I've not heard a peep from them since!
If you "need" an allowance to survive then you really do need to speak to your SW about this because the last thing you need is to fall behind in your mortgage repayments and have your future children's home put at risk. These are things which should be discussed at your financial homestudy session and if you feel you really do need one in order to adopt then say so.
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Post by moo on May 7, 2014 4:59:18 GMT
Great advice given ruby7.... Deffo get the allowance sorted before panel... Don't be scared to ask... As much older children they sadly will be considered harder to place.... An allowance for two in these circs seems like it ' should ' be available to you ....
Good Luck.... If you don't ask you deffo won't get....
xx. moo. Xx
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Post by homebird on May 7, 2014 7:36:42 GMT
Ours is means tested. We provide figures for outgoings = mortgage, council tax, water rates. and income = salary, pensions, tax credits. They do a calculation and we get the final result. It went up significantly when our daughter went on to secondary school.
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Post by serrakunda on May 7, 2014 11:47:54 GMT
I think expenses and settling in allowances definitely seem to be taking a hammering, inevitable I suppose. Not sure about the adoption allowances themselves, not much traffic about them on the other place.
Will definiely be means tested. I would argue that if they want you to take the full year off they should at least fund you to be able to do that, otherwise you will just have to go back to work - is that what they want? Have you had a look at the position re tax credits? I went on adoption leave right at the end of one tax year so wasnt allowed to apply then. You can appeal on the grounds of reduced income within the current tax year. It was a bit of a faff, I was allowed to apply in October when my adoption pay went down to half, I was declined and then allowed to appeal on the grounds of reduced income. The calculation is based on your estimated income for that tax year plus £2000. I was finally granted tax credits in the February, backdated to October, though the the backdated element wasnt paid until June because they had to wait to the end of the tax year, so a dreadful faff but worth it.
Longer term, are you intending to go back to work part time ? ie will you fall into the standard tax bracket, this may have an impact on your eligibilty for child benefit and tax credits.
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Post by nomoretears on May 7, 2014 13:26:45 GMT
Hi, my last placement was considered "difficult to adopt". She was very nearly school age. No adoption allowance was granted.
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Post by donatella on May 7, 2014 13:29:37 GMT
We have three - all adopted separately admittedly. Two with asd, one of those ADHD as well. No AA here! Even if we applied it would be means tested and we wouldn't be eligible. Nor are we eligible for tax credits or child tax credits. And I'm a sahm!
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Post by oogleschnook on May 7, 2014 15:44:07 GMT
Congratulations on your match!
Like a lot of things in adoption, allowances seem so variable.
We were very lucky in that we have been given allowances but eldest two had identified additional needs and youngest (placed separately) was birth sibling who they were keen to place with their sibs.
Tricky if you are absolutely going to need allowance to survive as often they are means tested and can change...
In terms of furniture etc for kids rooms ask friends or look on ebay. I kitted out LOs room in gorgeous hand made furniture courtesy of ebay/local charity shop for about £70 which has been much admired!
For assessment we had to do list of incomings and outgoings for SW, maybe do this for what you think you'll have for each month of adoption leave, then you can use this to start discussion with your SW and look at where you can save things.
Good luck!
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Post by flowerpower on May 7, 2014 16:01:10 GMT
Our LA don't pay any settling in allowance anymore, I know of one adopter in our area that is still getting an adoption allowance she adopted 3 siblings but last time we talked she did not think she would get it next year. They agreed at panel that she would get it for 2 years and then to be assed yearly she is now 3 years in and she don't think she will get it next year. But good luck xx
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Post by oogleschnook on May 7, 2014 16:02:03 GMT
Just thinking 2k month mortgage is a huge amount to have to find... Any chance you could increase the term or just pay interest for a bit(tho guess that could be tricky if you can't return to work...)
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ruby7
Bronze Member
Approved prospective adopter
Posts: 96
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Post by ruby7 on May 7, 2014 17:18:26 GMT
Some good points, crazy that it's so different all over. Yes a big on up cycling so will be able to kit out nicely. We have just submitted financial plan. Good tip about doing a monthly plan for when I' m actually on adoption leave. This way I can clearly show them the shortfall, do the work for them!
I'm not sure if I will go back full or part time, depends on how the duckies get on......
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Post by kstar on May 7, 2014 17:55:57 GMT
I was also really cheeky with my closest friends and family. I knew they would want to buy gifts etc so I asked for specific things. I also made it clear I welcomed donations of clothes, toys and furniture!
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ruby7
Bronze Member
Approved prospective adopter
Posts: 96
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Post by ruby7 on May 7, 2014 19:18:23 GMT
Yup I'm constructing that list already .....
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Post by damson on May 26, 2014 20:17:54 GMT
We worked full time till our children came home, then I had 6 months adoption leave (half pay) and got an adoption allowance. I went back to work half time, and the allowance stopped.
I don't know whether we'd get one if the children came home now!
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arethstar
New Member
Single Adopter
Posts: 29
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Post by arethstar on May 28, 2014 20:19:50 GMT
I received an allowance as a singly with a school aged child (it actually went up a bit on her 5th birthday) to allow me to take the full year off. The very *day* I went back to work (on reduced hours), they were on the phone asking if I had indeed gone back to work as planned. I was immediately re-assessed and unsurprisingly, the allowance stopped.
Still, it was very helpful while I had it (as was 250 settling in grant) and it is worth asking for and stressing that it would make the difference in allowing you to take as much time off work as possible which is oh so important.
Annoyingly, my adoption leave straddled two tax years in such a way that I was in or around the limit both years for tax credits and have probably spent more on phonecalls to them than I've received in credits!
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Post by spideress on Jun 10, 2014 12:06:11 GMT
We were *really* lucky in what they gave us - particularly as our SW said finances had been really "strapped down" lately and did not think we would get anything. DH is on just under £13K and he is our only income source. In the last tax year we were penilised by £100 pm as tax credits "disregard" the first £2,500 pa of income loss so when I stopped working (I was self-employed and actually showed a ZERO income for the year) they were basing our income as £15,500 rather than the just under £13K it is so as of this new tax year our Working Tax Credit has increased by about £100 plus we get Child Tax Credit and Child benefit. We are paying a mortgage so do not get housing benefit but our income is low enough now to qualify for free NHS dental treatment/prescriptions and money towards glasses etc. Working Tax and Child Tax credit clearly stated to me that they do not "count" adoption allowance as "income" when it comes to calculating Tax Credits (similar to how they do not count fostering allowance as "income"). I think it has all been "means tested" though. Once your household income starts to go above about £15-£17K (I think the range is somewhere in there) I think you do not qualify for tax credits or free NHS treatment etc.
Incy was 4.5 when placed with us and we got the following:
£250.00 Adoption Start Up Grant
25p per mile towards mileage cost of intros
£97.70 per week Adoption Allowance for a year with a review after the first year
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