Industry News: Changes to ensure adopters and kinship carers don't lose out on tax credits welcomed by CoramBAAF

CoramBAAF welcomes Lord Freud's recognition in a recent House of Lords debate that 'the case was overwhelming’ in kinship carers and adopters being exempt from the limiting of tax credits to two children.

The new ruling means that families who become kinship carers or adopt will no longer lose out on benefits as a result of enlarging their families in this way.

Dr John Simmonds OBE, CoramBAAF’s Director of Policy, Research and Development, said:
"With 22 per cent of kinship carers having three or more children in their household and approximately 200,000 children currently in kinship care in the UK, there are around 29,000 large families with kin children. Of these, 63 per cent are currently receiving child tax credit, so around 18,000 households would be negatively affected by a limitation on tax credits.

"For those children who are waiting to be adopted, their wait will be even longer, or in fact may not happen at all, if they are brothers and sisters rather than single children. These sibling groups need all the support available to increase their chances of a stable loving family home."

He added: "We are very pleased that the government has chosen to support adopters and kinship carers in this way and recognise their critical importance to children's and young people's stability, sense of belonging and wellbeing and associated benefits on life chances and opportunities."

​Source:
http://corambaaf.org.uk/node/8139

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