Staying Put: What Happens When a Young Person Turns 18?

Most of us did not have our lives sorted out at eighteen. We had a birthday, then carried on living at home while we worked out what came next. Staying Put lets a young person in foster care do the same: stay in the home they know, with the people they know, past their eighteenth birthday. Here is how it works, what changes on the day, and what it means for your income.

Please note: this is general information, not personal tax, benefits or legal advice. Figures are correct at August 2026 and tax figures apply to the 2026 to 2027 tax year. The statutory framework is set out in section 23CZA of the Children Act 1989 and the DfE, DWP and HMRC Staying Put guidance (2013). Tax rates are on the HMRC qualifying care relief helpsheet (HS236). Your own arrangement will depend on the young person’s local authority, so please check with them and with us.

What Staying Put actually means

Staying Put is an arrangement where a young person who has been in foster care carries on living with their foster carer after they turn eighteen. It can run until they are twenty-one. Local authorities in England have a legal duty to monitor these arrangements and to provide advice, assistance and support to keep them going, under section 23CZA of the Children Act 1989, inserted by the Children and Families Act 2014. It is a recognised part of the care system, and for a lot of young people it is the difference between leaving home when they are ready and leaving home because a date arrived.

It applies to foster care specifically. A young person leaving a children’s home is supported through Staying Close instead, which the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 is extending to every council in England as a national duty from 2028 to 2029.

Who can stay put

Not every young person leaving care is eligible, and the criteria are worth knowing early rather than at seventeen and a half. Both of you have to want it. Nobody can be pushed into a Staying Put arrangement, on either side.

• The young person has been looked after for at least 13 weeks since they turned 14, continuously or in separate episodes.
• They are in your foster placement immediately before their 18th birthday.
• Both you and the young person agree to the arrangement.
• It is written into their pathway plan, which follows an assessment the local authority must complete within three months of them becoming eligible, usually shortly after their 16th birthday.
• The local authority agrees the arrangement is consistent with their welfare.

This happens more often than people expect. Of eighteen-year-olds who left foster care on their eighteenth birthday, 62% were still living with their former foster carers three months later, on the Department for Education’s figures for the year ending 31 March 2025. So it is normal. It also does not happen for around four in ten, which tells you the arrangement takes planning rather than good intentions.

What changes on the eighteenth birthday

Practically, very little changes in the house. Same bedroom, same routines, same arguments about the washing up. Legally, quite a lot changes, and it helps to have read that list before the day rather than after it.

• The young person stops being a looked-after child and becomes a care leaver. You become their Staying Put carer rather than their foster carer.
• The fostering regulations, statutory guidance and national minimum standards no longer apply to that arrangement, so supervision and checks change shape.
• Your fostering allowance for that young person stops and a Staying Put allowance starts.
• They are expected to contribute towards rent and household costs, from earnings, benefits or local authority support.
• A Living Together Agreement replaces the placement plan, covering house rules, responsibilities, money and the independence skills you will help with.
• If you carry on fostering, the young person is now an adult in the household, so an enhanced DBS check will be arranged and your approval may need to go back to fostering panel.

That last point catches people out. It is not a judgement on the young person, it is the rule for any adult living in a fostering household, and we handle the paperwork with you.

The money, honestly

This is the part that gets skated over, so here it is plainly. A Staying Put allowance is usually lower than the fostering fee you were receiving. The guidance suggests local authorities start from the previous fostering payment less the amounts for clothing and pocket money, but the rate is set by the young person’s local authority, not by us, and it varies between boroughs. Ask what the figure will be while the young person is sixteen, not the week before they turn eighteen.

For comparison, our fostering rates are fixed and published: £479.50 a week for a child under eleven and £507.50 for a child aged eleven or over, paid per child while a child is placed with you, plus an enhanced fee of roughly £100 to £200 a week for higher-needs placements. They are set out on our foster carer pay page and in our guide to how foster carer pay works. A Staying Put allowance will not match them.

• You receive a weekly Staying Put allowance from the local authority or through us, depending on the arrangement.
• The young person pays you rent weekly. If their earnings do not cover it and they are not eligible for Universal Credit, the local authority will usually cover it.
• They also contribute towards household costs such as heating and food.
• If they go away to university or onto a training programme that takes them out of the home, your income from the arrangement is likely to drop.
• You stay self-employed for tax and qualifying care relief still applies: for 2026 to 2027, £20,440 per household per year plus £515 a week for each person aged eleven or over in your care, which includes a young person staying put.

For many carers, qualifying care relief means there is no tax to pay on the Staying Put income, though that depends on your total income from caring for the year. We go through the mechanics in our article on tax and qualifying care relief. The young person’s own benefits are a separate question, and their personal adviser is the right person to work that out with them.

Planning starts at sixteen, not seventeen

The conversations that make Staying Put work happen years before the birthday. From around sixteen the young person will have a personal adviser alongside their social worker, and a pathway plan covering what they want to do, where they will live and what support they need. That plan is reviewed at least every six months. If Staying Put is a possibility, it belongs in it, in writing, early.

Good practice is to have the first conversations separately. You talk to your supervising social worker about whether you could offer it, and the young person talks to their social worker about what they want, so neither of you feels put on the spot by the other. Then, somewhere between sixteen and seventeen and a half, you sit down together for planning meetings and draft the Living Together Agreement. Settle the unglamorous things in it: curfews, visitors, whether they can stay while you are on holiday, who replaces the toaster, what happens if they lose a job. It prevents most of the arguments.

When it ends, and what comes next

A Staying Put arrangement ends naturally at twenty-one. It can also end earlier: the young person may want to move on, the local authority may end it if it is not working for them, or you may need to end it because of space, health or money. Ask what the notice period is before you sign anything.

Ending at twenty-one does not mean support stops dead. Care leavers can ask for a personal adviser at any point up to the age of twenty-five, and that support continues to twenty-five for those in education or training. Plenty of young people simply carry on being part of the family afterwards, in the ordinary way adult children do, with a spare room at Christmas and a phone call when the boiler breaks. Nobody commissions that. It tends to be what happens when a young person has had a home rather than a placement.

You won’t have to do this alone

Staying Put asks something different of you than fostering does. You are supporting an adult who can legally make their own decisions, including some you would not make, while still being the steady thing in their life. That is a real shift, and one our supervising social workers talk through with carers long before the eighteenth birthday. You keep your supervising social worker, your out-of-hours support and your training. We chase the local authority about the allowance so you do not have to, and we help you draft a Living Together Agreement that is fair to both of you. There is more on the support around you in our guide to the support foster carers receive, and on the shapes a placement can take in short-term and long-term fostering explained. Greater London Fostering was inspected by Ofsted in July 2025 and rated Outstanding in all three judgements.

Frequently asked questions

Can I still foster other children while a young person stays put?

Yes, and many carers do. Because the young person is now an adult in the household, an enhanced DBS check will be arranged for them, and your terms of approval may need to go back to fostering panel. Your supervising social worker starts that in good time so nothing is rushed.

How much will I be paid for a Staying Put arrangement?

It is set by the young person’s local authority rather than by us, and it is usually lower than a fostering fee. The guidance suggests councils start from your previous payment less the elements for clothing and pocket money. The young person also pays rent and contributes to household costs. Ask for the actual figure during pathway planning.

Does Staying Put affect my tax?

You remain self-employed and qualifying care relief still applies. For 2026 to 2027 that is £20,440 per household plus £515 a week for each person aged eleven or over in your care, including a young person staying put. Whether you owe tax depends on your total income from caring, so check the HMRC helpsheet or ask an accountant.

What if it stops working?

Either side can end the arrangement, and the local authority can end it if it is not in the young person’s interests. A notice period will be set out in the local authority’s Staying Put policy. If things are getting difficult, tell your supervising social worker early. Most of the problems we see are practical ones about money, space or house rules, and they are much easier to fix before anyone runs out of patience.