Last-minute reprieve for carers

After much protest from the sector, the government last week announced concessions for foster carers from housing benefit reforms, which opponents have branded the “bedroom tax”.

Until then, it looked as if foster carers would be one of the big losers from the changes, which come into effect on 1 April.

The reforms aim to cut the housing benefit bill by reducing the amount paid to recipients with a spare bedroom by 14 per cent, or by 25 per cent if two or more rooms are unoccupied. Under the new rules, children under 10 or children of the same sex aged up to 16 are expected to share a room.

For some, this will mean paying more for their home or being relocated. But households deemed to belong to a priority group can get support from the limited discretionary housing funds that the government has given local authorities.

Discretionary funds
Prior to the U-turn, foster carers that have an extra room for the children they look after and receive housing benefit stood to lose some of their entitlement and would have had to rely on the discretionary funds.

The risk that some foster carers could be punished for having a bedroom that they used for the children they take in prompted protests from campaigners.

The government’s climbdown means that foster carers can keep an additional room, whether or not a child is currently placed with them, so long as they have become an approved foster carer or fostered a child within the last 12 months. But if a foster carer has multiple empty rooms, they will still see their housing benefit reduced.

Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network, says the 12-month window is “reasonable”, but he is concerned about foster carers with more than one unoccupied room. “My hope is that no foster carer would lose any part of their housing benefit,” he says.

Manchester City Council says the cuts could affect up to 12,500 people in the city, including 100 foster carers. A spokesman says the council will attempt to support foster carers, but it has allocated only £600,000 of its unringfenced £1.9m discretionary housing payment fund to under-occupation. It expects this will be enough to help 1,000 of the 12,500 who might need protection.

“Thousands of people will be affected across Manchester, penalised because of a variety of personal circumstances,” says Labour councillor Jeff Smith, Manchester’s executive member for finance. “Given the finite resource available to support residents, the awards we are able to give will be limited in their value and duration. This means the discretionary housing payment fund can never be a cover-all, long-term solution to everyone’s financial predicament. We will need to look at each application individually to ensure the fund can support as many people as possible. This will include claimants penalised for housing fostered children.”

In Leeds, up to 100 foster families are expected to be affected by the reforms. The council has also received £1.9m to cover discretionary housing payments. Before last week’s announcement, it had alerted foster carers to the changes and encouraged them to apply for funding.

Unfair cuts
Labour councillor Judith Blake, the executive member for children’s services in Leeds, says the cuts were “fundamentally unfair to foster carers and did nothing to encourage people to come forward and foster some of our most vulnerable children and young people”. “We have lobbied with our partners across the city to highlight the unfairness of this welfare change and I am pleased that we have been listened to. But we will be looking carefully at the detail of the new proposal,” she adds.

Andrew Christie, tri-borough director of children’s services in west London and chair of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services’ health, care and additional needs committee, says the timing of the announce­ment was “problematic” for local authorities, coming less than three weeks before the cuts start.

He is also concerned that the one-bedroom restriction could deter foster carers willing to care for more than one child. “Some carers offer valuable placements to sibling groups,” says Christie. “We wouldn’t want that group to be penalised in any way because they are such a valuable and precious resource for us.”

Despite exempting some foster carers from the reforms, the Department for Work and Pensions has said it will not reduce the level of discretionary housing payments allocated to councils. “This will assist a little bit towards the problem,” says Christie. “We’re always wanting to encourage more people to take up fostering and that remains a fundamental priority for us.”