Fostering fees and allowances

Our Weekly Fostering Allowance payment covers the living costs associated with caring for a child and will include food, clothing, pocket money, phone expenses, outings, and activities.

The amount you will be paid is in line with the Department for Education National Minimum Allowance rate and is based on the age of the child in your care, with an additional enhancement to cover the costs of birthdays and religious festivals. This payment is paid per child per week.

Skill level fee payment

This is the fee we pay to foster carers for doing an outstanding job every day by helping children in our community. This payment is paid per child per week.

Our skill level fees increase in line with foster carers' experience and training progression. Foster carers will begin to receive Level 1 weekly allowance on successful completion of their Training, Support and Development (TSD) Standards. We work with all newly approved carers to help them achieve this as quickly as possible.

Age group	Weekly fostering allowance	Level 1 skill fee	Level 2 skill fee	Level 3 skill fee
0-4	£175	£125	£190	£210
5-7	£193	£150	£190	£210
8-10	£193	£185	£200	£210
11-15	£222	£185	£200	£210
16+	£260	£185	£200	£210

Your first year fostering

On placement of your first child, you will begin to receive the weekly fostering allowance dependent on the age of the child you care for. In addition, you will receive a £1,000 bonus in recognition of your first placement.

You will begin to receive a skill level fee on successful completion of you Training, Support and Development (TSD) Standards, when you will also receive a £1,500 bonus.

The following shows your potential earnings in your first year of fostering*:

	TSD Standards completed 3 months post approval		TSD Standards completed 6 months post approval		TSD Standards completed 9 months post approval
Age of child	1st child	Each additional child	1st child	Each additional child	1st child	Each additional child
0-4	£16,475	£13,975	£14,850	£12,350	£13,225	£10,725
5-7	£18,386	£15,886	£16,436	£13,936	£14,486	£11,986
8-10	£19,751	£17,251	£17,346	£14,846	£14,941	£12,441
11-15	£21,259	£18,759	£18,854	£16,354	£16,449	£13,949
16+	£23,235	£20,735	£20,830	£18,330	£18,425	£15,925

*Amounts assume each placement is full 52 weeks

Additional allowances for foster carers

Foster carers receive additional allowances including:

A mileage allowance for any journeys outside the normal day to day. The current rate is 45p per mile.
Setting up grant of up to £750 to assist you with purchasing equipment for your home.
Yearly allowance of between £505 - £755 dependent on the age of the child to take them on holiday during the year.
In some circumstances, we pay additional allowances towards the cost of clothing and school uniform.

Paid holiday

Sheffield foster carers can access up to 14 nights of paid holiday per year.

Support Care

Support carers are paid in line with the mainstream payments and calculated pro-rata for the amount of time you care for the child.

Short Breaks for Disabled Children

The Short Breaks Scheme is specifically designed for disabled young people and payments are in recognition of the skills and experience needed to care for children with disabilities.

Foster carers are paid £93.57 for an overnight period of care (up to 24 hours) and £10.80 per hour for additional hours or other daytime care. Foster carers are also paid this rate for any meetings or training they need to attend in relation to the child they care for.

Tax and benefits

Fostering fees and allowances do not count as an income for tax and benefit purposes and therefore don’t affect any benefit entitlement. Full time foster carers may be able to claim a combination of working tax credits, job seekers allowance, and/or income support (plus other benefits they may be entitled to) depending on their individual circumstances.

While the introduction of Universal Credit is likely to affect fostering, it will continue to disregard fostering fees and allowances for tax and benefit purposes.