Guides

I wrote these to be read once, quickly. Every legal point has its source next to it, so you can check it or show it to someone.

• Ask your council for its written policyEvery council should have a published policy on financial support for special guardians. It is the document every later question rests on.
• Asking for more because of your child's needsThe regulations allow a council to pay more where a child has a disability, or where they are living with the consequences of abuse or neglect. There is no national figure, so you have to ask.
• Benefits, tax and your special guardianship allowanceYour allowance is not taxable and is not counted as your income for means-tested benefits. Guardian's Allowance has to be claimed separately. The two-child limit has gone.
• Can your council take Child Benefit off your special guardianship allowance?The regulations let a council take Child Benefit into account. What the Ombudsman found wrong was applying the same rule to every carer without looking at individual cases. Here is what to ask.
• Complaining: your council first, then the OmbudsmanHow to complain about a special guardianship allowance decision, and what the Ombudsman has actually ordered councils to do.
• How the means test works, and why it is not the lawMost English councils use a Department for Education spreadsheet model that no law requires and that pre-dates Universal Credit. Here is how it works and where it commonly goes wrong.
• How the rates work, and when they changeCouncils raise allowance rates on 1 April, the government states the same rates for a tax year starting 6 April, and benefit rates change in the first full week. The gaps between those dates matter.
• If you fostered the child before the order: the two-year ruleA council can keep paying a former foster carer the reward element of their fostering allowance for two years after a special guardianship order, and for longer if it thinks that right. What that covers, what it does not, and how to ask.
• Kinship care in ScotlandSpecial guardianship orders do not exist in Scots law. Scotland has the Scottish Recommended Allowance, which is a minimum and applies equally to foster and kinship carers.
• Kinship Zones: the pilot paying the full fostering rateSeven English councils are piloting a non-means-tested kinship allowance at the full fostering National Minimum Allowance, from April 2026 to 2029.
• What happens when your child turns 18Special guardianship financial support normally ends at 18, unless the young person stays in full-time education or training. Plan for it before it happens.
• What your council must consider when setting your allowanceThe fostering allowance is the starting point, not an adoption allowance and not a percentage. What the guidance and the courts actually say.
• Which council is responsible for your support?For three years after the order, the council that looked after the child stays responsible, even if you have moved. After that it usually passes to where you live.
• Who can get a special guardianship allowance?How strong your position is depends on whether the child was in the council's care immediately before the order. Either way, you can ask.
• Why a fixed percentage of the fostering rate is a problemTwo-thirds, a third, 75%. Councils have repeatedly been found at fault for setting special guardianship allowances at a flat share of the fostering rate, without looking at the individual case.
• Your allowance should be reviewed every yearSpecial guardianship financial support is subject to annual review. Rates rise every April. If you have not had a review, ask for one.