Foster Care Pay, Allowances & Financial Support (2026 UK Guide)
Foster parent payments and allowancesWhile no-one should be motivated to foster purely for the money, very few people have the luxury of being able to afford to foster (well) without the money.
Let’s explore why we feel that it is so important that our foster parents receive a higher than average, liveable wage for this incredibly important work.
Children are expensive
Many of our children come from backgrounds where money has been tight. Everyday things that many of us take for granted, like a well-stocked fridge or shoes that fit, may not be familiar to them. We want our foster children to know that they are valued and deserve nice things. We also want our foster families to be able to provide them.
If Tiana wants to play for the local football team, we want our foster parents to make that possible. They should be able to comfortably pay the monthly subs and buy her new football boots that she can be proud to wear.
And the joy that you will feel when she scores top bins will mean that they are worth every penny.
Fostering is time consuming
Foster children need foster parents who are really there for them, not just physically present but emotionally present too. Many children adjust well to breakfast, after-school or holiday clubs. However, foster children may need more stability, particularly during their first few months with you. Having a safe and consistent home environment can help them begin to build trust and feel secure.
Get all of the boring jobs; washing, cleaning and shopping done in the daytime while they are at school or nursery so that you have the time to build a blanket fort with them when they get home, or help them with their reading or jump on the Xbox and play a game of Fortnite.
Being there when children need you
We need at least one foster parent to be available to the child/ren at all times. Most of our children will have had a disrupted education and, coupled with being exposed to trauma, this often means that they struggle in school, either with their emotions or their behaviour.
Even the most understanding employer may find this difficult. You might need to leave work unexpectedly to collect a child from school. There may also be mornings when helping a child get into school takes much longer than expected.
The subsequent stress of feeling guilty and torn between placating your boss but also being there for your struggling foster child can really take a toll. A good fostering wage can relieve this stress and help you focus on supporting foster children to thrive.
Making time for family relationships
You may need to transport your foster child/ren to regular family time, to help nurture the often fragile relationships that they have with Mum, Dad, siblings or grandparents.
And then dedicate your time to helping them to cope with the various emotions that they will feel afterwards – there’s no harm in a cheeky trip to Nandos every now and again to encourage that little smile back on their face.
The responsibilities of fostering are immense
Fostering means caring for other people’s children. They may not always respond in ways you expect and can need a patient and creative approach.
Each of our children deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential. Helping them achieve this takes great skill and dedication.
We provide foster parents with ongoing training and professional development. This helps you understand childhood trauma and respond confidently to behaviours linked to a child’s early experiences. Meeting up with other foster parents for supervision and training can be super useful – tips a plenty.
Foster parents are professionals
Fostering involves writing daily reports and attending regular meetings. These may be with schools, local authorities and health professionals. You’ll be a key part of the fostering team. Your foster children need you to feel confident speaking up and advocating for them in professional meetings. We need people with a unique set of skills, and fair pay helps us keep those skills in fostering.
Others working in vocational professions such as nurses, carers, social workers, teachers and nursery workers are never accused of doing their jobs for the money and the majority of the public think they deserve to be paid far more – and, unlike foster parents, they get to go home and switch off after a hard shift.
Foster parents care for the most vulnerable children in our society 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and fully deserve to be paid well for the amazing work that they do. The Hazel Project founding directors grew up in a fostering family and have devoted their lives to improving standards of care for children, raising the profile of the value of good fostering and the deserved recognition of absolutely amazing foster parents.
Our pay structure
We base each child’s fostering rate on their individual needs and agree this with their referring local authority. We’ll discuss the rate with you before you welcome a child into your family.
The rates below are our usual rates. We’ll explain these in much more detail when you speak to us. Every child’s needs and experiences are different. Some children may need more time, expertise, specialist equipment or additional support.
Standard
A child not known to have any additional needs:
£511.78 per week
Enhanced
A child with some additional needs:
£639.72 per week
Specialist
A child with significant additional needs:
£832.14 per week
Parent & Child
We support parents who are having their parenting abilities assessed by giving them the opportunity to stay with a foster family and develop the skills they need to safely care for their child:
£959.25 per week
Hippocratic
Children who would otherwise be in residential care (children’s homes) due to their high level of needs or challenging behaviour:
£995.19 per week
Solo
A child who will benefit from being the only child in the household:
£1054.26 per week
Monies intended as payment for your services (professional fees), monies intended to provide for the care of the child (maintenance fees), savings and pocket money are all included within these rates and you have the freedom to budget accordingly. We provide guidelines on how much to budget for things like clothes each month but we are all aware that some months children need more spent than others – growth spurts, changes in weather or back to school being good examples.
In some circumstances, we are bound to offer discounts against rates charged for the services that we provide for siblings or children in longer-term care due to contracts or terms and conditions imposed by local authorities – again this would all be discussed in advance of any child/ren joining your family.
Fostering and tax
In the vast majority of cases, fostering is now tax-free as the government recognises the amazing work that is being done by foster parents. Foster parents have self-employed status and will need to file tax returns. In your tax return, you can claim a tax exemption of up to £18,140 per fostering household. In addition, you can receive tax relief for each child you foster. This is known as qualifying care relief. For under 11s, this is £375 per week and for 11 or over, £450 per week. So, for example, if you were fostering a 14 year old for 52 weeks, you would need to earn £50,540 in fostering fees before you paid any tax that year.
Our finance team would be happy to chat through any fostering-related finance questions in more detail, please call 01795 470 222.
For more information about tax breaks given to foster parents and some examples of how this works, visit; The Fostering Network Tax FAQ’s
Hazel Project foster parents (those fostering with Xcel 2000 or Diverse Care fostering organisations) can benefit from help with their tax returns from accountancy firm Burgess Hodgson. For more information: