Your allowance should be reviewed every year
Written and reviewed by Patricia Hughes · Last updated · last reviewed · rates for 2026/27
Financial support is subject to review. In practice, this is one of the easiest things to let slip and one of the easiest to put right.
What actually triggers a review
Your council has to review your financial support when it receives your annual statement of circumstances. The trigger is that statement, not simply a year going by.
Special Guardianship Regulations 2005, reg 18(2)(a) (checked 2026-09-03)Supplying that statement is something you agree to when support is set up.
Special Guardianship Regulations 2005, reg 10 (checked 2026-09-03)So if your council has never asked you for an annual statement, you are not late for a review. Your council has not set up the thing that produces one. That is a stronger point to make than "it has been more than a year", and it is the question to put in writing: have you asked me for an annual statement, and if not, why has my support not been reviewed?
What a review should involve
- The council asks you for up-to-date information about your circumstances.
- It works out whether the support should change.
- It tells you what it proposes, before it changes anything.
- It gives you a reasonable chance to comment.
- It tells you the outcome, with reasons.
Why it matters more than it sounds
Councils normally raise their rates on 1 April every year. (The government states the same rates for a tax year beginning 6 April, which is explained on the rates page.)
| Age of child | London | South East | Rest of England |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–2 | £205 | £195 | £176 |
| 3–4 | £208 | £203 | £182 |
| 5–10 | £233 | £223 | £201 |
| 11–15 | £266 | £255 | £227 |
| 16–17 | £309 | £298 | £267 |
An allowance that has not been reviewed in several years has quietly lost value against those figures. Nothing dramatic has to have gone wrong for you to be materially underpaid. It is enough for nobody to have looked.
Asking for one
You do not need a reason beyond "it has been more than a year". Ask in writing, and ask what information the council needs from you so it can get on with it.
When I asked for a review of my own calculation, what came back four months later was the policy I had already read. So ask for the two things a policy cannot give you: the figures the council used for your household, and the date it last looked at them.
There is a template letter for this. Work out your figure and it appears at the end of your result, already filled in with your council, your area and your own numbers. Template: request-annual-review
What you can check, and what you have to ask for
Read regulation 18 and you have the trigger. It ties your review to the annual statement of circumstances, and it is quoted above with its source.
Whether your council ever set that statement up for you is not written down anywhere. If nobody has ever asked you for one, that is your question, and it is a better one than asking why the review is late.
Work out what your council should be paying you It takes under a minute, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
Common questions
My allowance has been the same for years. Is that right?
It is worth querying. The national minimum allowance rises every April, so an allowance that has not moved has, in real terms, been falling.
Can my council reduce my allowance at a review?
It can vary support after a review, but it should tell you what it proposes and give you a chance to comment before it does.
This is an estimate, not legal advice. Financial support for special guardians is discretionary, and there is no fixed amount you can require your council to pay. It shows you the figure your council should be starting from, and what the rules and the published decisions say about how it has to decide.
Your council can lawfully pay less than the maximum after properly assessing your circumstances. If something here matters to your case, talk to one of the advice lines below before you rely on it.
Where these figures and rules come from
- Special Guardianship Regulations 2005, reg 18(2)(a) (checked 2026-09-03)The local authority must review financial support payable periodically on receipt of the annual statement mentioned in reg 10. The trigger is receipt of the statement, not the passage of twelve months.
- Special Guardianship Regulations 2005, reg 10 (checked 2026-09-03)Conditions. Reg 10(1)(b) requires the special guardian to agree to supply an annual statement of their circumstances. That statement is what triggers the review duty in reg 18(2)(a).
- Special Guardianship Regulations 2005, reg 6 (checked 2026-08-29)
Related guides
Who can help
These organisations give free, independent advice on kinship care and special guardianship. They are not part of your council.
- Kinship: advice and peer support for kinship carers. kinship.org.uk
- Family Rights Group: free advice line for families dealing with children's services. frg.org.uk
- Citizens Advice: benefits, debt and general advice. citizensadvice.org.uk
- Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (England), if you have complained to your council and are not satisfied. lgo.org.uk