Special guardianship allowance calculator

Which council is responsible for your support?

Written and reviewed by Patricia Hughes · Last updated · last reviewed

This catches people out, particularly where a family has moved to be closer to relatives after an order was made.

It caught me out. Nobody told me which council to write to, and the one I assumed was responsible, the council for the area where I lived, was not the council that had been looking after my granddaughter.

The three-year rule

For three years from the making of the special guardianship order, the council that was looking after the child immediately before the order remains responsible for assessing support needs, even if you now live somewhere else entirely.

Special Guardianship Regulations 2005, reg 5 (checked 2026-08-29)

After three years, responsibility normally passes to the council for the area where you live.

The exception, and it is an important one

If your council was already paying you financial support, and it decided to pay it before the order was made, then the three-year cut-off does not apply to that support. The original council stays responsible for it, indefinitely.

That will often be the case if you were the child's foster carer before the order, because the support was usually agreed as part of the arrangements at the time.

So if you have been told your support ends, or passes to a new council, because three years have gone by, the question to ask is: when was the decision to provide my financial support taken, and was it before the order was made?

Important

Financial support that has already been agreed is a separate question from who assesses new needs. If you are being passed back and forth, ask each council to confirm its position in writing.

Why it is worth pinning down early

Every request you make, for a review, for an enhancement, for the written policy, has to go to the right council to get an answer. Time spent asking the wrong one is time your allowance stays where it is.

Getting to the right council is only half of it. Inside the right one I was told to speak to the social worker, and the social worker sent me back to the finance team. Ask in your first letter who owns the decision about the money.

What you can check, and what you have to ask for

Regulation 5 sets the three years and your order carries its own date, so the ordinary case you can work out for yourself.

The exception you cannot. Whether your council decided to pay you support before the order was made sits in its records rather than yours, and that decision is what removes the cut-off. Ask which council holds it.

Work out what your council should be paying you It takes under a minute, and nothing you type leaves your browser.

Common questions

I moved shortly after the order. Who do I ask?

For the first three years, the council that looked after the child. After that, normally the council where you now live.

Both councils say it is the other one. What now?

Put the question to both in writing, referring to the three-year rule, and ask each to confirm its position in writing. If they still disagree, this is a good moment to use a complaints procedure or get advice.

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

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