How Much Do Foster Parents Get Paid?

Becoming a foster carer can be one of the most rewarding experiences, as it offers you the opportunity to change a young person’s life. As this is an important decision, one of the most common queries around fostering is around the fostering allowance, and how to cover the cost of caring for a child.

Foster care is a full-time job, so it’s important to be sure that your new career is financially viable. As a foster carer, you will receive a weekly fostering allowance, or foster care pay, per child or young person in their care. Learn more about how much foster parents get paid from our detailed guide.

Fostering Allowance UK

How much foster carers are paid per week varies on several factors, including:

• The needs of the child or young person in your care.
• The type of foster care you are providing.
• The age of your foster placement and the geographical area you are fostering in.
• Whether you are fostering with a local authority or an independent fostering agency – as the latter can often afford to pay its foster carers a larger weekly amount than local authorities can.
• This weekly fostering income is split into two distinct parts:

1. Support for foster carers and to help cover the costs of caring for a foster placement, including the cost for food, clothing, transport, etc.
2. Reward for a carer’s hard work and dedication in providing their fostering services.

So, how much do foster parents get paid?

The amount of foster care pay is dependant on the type of foster care and age of your foster placement:

• Therapeutic foster placements pay between £515 – £590 per week.
• Parent and child placements pay approximately £665 per week.
• Standard placements pay approximately £339 - £454 per week.
• Respite placements pay approximately £339 - £454 per week.

At Excel Fostering, our average fostering pay weekly rates are well over £400 per week.

The demand for therapeutic fostering placements has grown over the last year and, as a result, Excel Fostering has introduced a programme to provide the extra training and resources required to carers to enable them to provide therapeutic placements. Fostering allowances for these placements is between £500 and £600. Most of our new carers are able to offer this service.

If you look after a child in a therapeutic placement for a whole year, your total income will be over £26,780 (and £23,000 will be tax-free).

Do foster parents pay tax?

Foster carers are considered self-employed professionals and so are eligible to claim income tax relief benefits. This generally means that foster parents with a single placement will not be required to pay any tax on any money received for that placement in a year – foster parents with two or more foster children need only pay a small amount of tax.

Foster allowance and training

As well as financial support, we also provide our carers with a wide range of foster carer training courses and daily support services. Our support services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to offer guidance and advice to our team members, no matter the time or day.

Now you know everything about the fostering allowance, all you need to apply today is to be over the age of 21, be in good health and have a spare room in your home. Then you can take the first step on your journey to making a real difference to the lives of young people in your local area.

If this sounds like you and you’d like to apply to become a foster carer, then the Excel team would love to hear from you. Contact Excel today.