Fostering and Your Benefits: What Changes and What Doesn’t

If your household budget only works because of the help you already get, the question that stops you picking up the phone is usually the same one. Will fostering take it away? Almost certainly not. Fostering allowances are ignored when a means-tested benefit is worked out, so the weekly fee does not come off your claim. There is one thing in all of this that genuinely needs your attention, and it is your State Pension rather than your Universal Credit. This is how the money sits, with the 2026 to 2027 figures.

Please note: this is general information about how the rules work, not personal financial advice, and your own position depends on your circumstances. The figures below are for the 2026 to 2027 tax year and are correct at October 2026. For guidance on your own claim, start with the benefits page for foster carers on gov.uk and ring Fosterline on 0800 040 7675, which is free and funded by the Department for Education.

The short answer

The Fostering Network states it without any hedging: fostering income is disregarded, meaning ignored, when any means-tested benefit is calculated. Fosterline, the advice service funded by the Department for Education, says the same thing about Universal Credit in particular, that all fostering payments are disregarded as income. Your Universal Credit, your Housing Benefit and your Council Tax Reduction are worked out as though the fostering fee were not there. You do still have to declare it to whoever pays you. Declaring something and being charged for it feel like the same act, which is why so many people who would comfortably meet the requirements to foster talk themselves out of enquiring before anyone has done the sums with them.

Universal Credit, and what the jobcentre will expect

Because the money is ignored, the part of Universal Credit that actually changes is what you are asked to do in return for it. Fosterline sets out how the work-related requirements work. A single carer looking after a child under one has no work-related requirements at all. From the child’s first birthday to their sixteenth, you attend work-focused interviews and nothing more is asked of you. Once the young person turns 16 the usual expectation to look for and be available for work comes back. In a couple, one of you is named as the lead carer and is generally free of work-search requirements while caring for a child under 16, sometimes up to 18, while the other partner keeps the requirements that fit their own situation.

The extra bedroom you are allowed

Under the size criteria that govern housing costs, an approved foster carer is allowed one bedroom more than the household would otherwise be entitled to. It holds even between children, and even before your first child arrives. Fosterline’s wording is that the room can stand empty for up to 52 weeks. So a spare room does not have to be a spare room you are penalised for. It is also worth saying that a spare bedroom is not always needed in the first place: a baby under two can sleep in a cot in your own room, which is why we are actively looking for carers who want to care for babies at the moment.

Child Benefit, and what arrives instead

This is the one that moves in the other direction. You cannot claim Child Benefit for a child you foster. The Fostering Network is explicit that foster carers are not entitled to it for the children they look after, because the local authority is already paying towards that child’s care through you. What arrives instead is a weekly fee, and at GLF that is:

• £479.50 a week for a child under 11
• £507.50 a week for a child aged 11 or over
• roughly £100 to £200 a week on top for higher-needs care

It is one fixed weekly fee for each week a child is living with you, covering both the allowance for their costs and your reward, which means there are no separate one-off payments to chase for birthdays or Christmas. How the fee is worked out is set out in full elsewhere on the site, along with our current rates.

Why most foster carers pay little or no tax

Foster carers are self-employed as far as HMRC is concerned, so you register once and file a return every year, paying tax on whatever profit you make. The reason most carers have no profit to pay tax on is Qualifying Care Relief, which sits on top of the personal allowance of £12,570. For 2026 to 2027 it gives you:

• a fixed £20,440 per household for the tax year
• plus £435 for each week you care for a child under 11
• plus £515 for each week you care for a child aged 11 or over

The tax week runs Monday to Sunday and a child in your home for any part of that week counts as a full week. Add it up and a carer looking after one nine year old all year has a qualifying amount of just over £43,000, before the £12,570 personal allowance is even counted. You still file the return, even when the answer is nil. Our guide do foster carers pay tax? goes through Qualifying Care Relief step by step.

Your State Pension is the thing to watch

Here is the catch that Qualifying Care Relief creates. If the relief wipes out your taxable profit, you have no self-employed earnings for National Insurance purposes, so you can foster for a decade and build nothing towards your pension. That is a real cost and nobody hands you a leaflet about it. The fix is a Class 3 National Insurance credit, which gov.uk confirms is available to foster carers, applied for on form CF411A. It has to be applied for; it does not arrive on its own. You need 35 qualifying years for the full new State Pension, worth £241.30 a week in 2026 to 2027, and at least 10 years to get any of it. If you would rather pay than claim, voluntary contributions cost £3.65 a week for Class 2 or £18.40 a week for Class 3.

Disability benefits, and the Council Tax question

A child living with you can claim Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment in their own right if they meet the criteria, and gov.uk says you may be able to claim Carer’s Allowance, worth £86.45 a week this year, if they are awarded it. The Fostering Network confirms your fostering income is ignored in the earnings test for Carer’s Allowance, so fostering does not price you out of it. Council Tax is the one question we cannot answer for you from here. Council Tax Reduction is run by each council under its own scheme, so what you get depends on which London borough you are in, and the only reliable answer is the one your own council gives you.

You won’t have to do this alone

Nobody expects you to work this out at the kitchen table on your own. Your supervising social worker knows how the fee is paid and what your end-of-year statement will say, and we will walk you through the self-employment registration rather than leaving you to find it. Fosterline will talk to you for free about your own claim before you commit to anything, and Turn2us runs a benefits calculator you can use anonymously tonight. We were inspected by Ofsted from 21 to 25 July 2025 and rated Outstanding in all three judgements, and the support carers get from us is a large part of why. If money is the thing holding you back, have the conversation before you decide. You might find the sums work better than you think.

Frequently asked questions

Will fostering stop my Universal Credit?

No. Fostering payments are disregarded as income for Universal Credit, so the fee does not reduce your award. You must still tell the office that pays you that you are receiving a fostering allowance. What does change is what is expected of you in return: a single carer of a child under one has no work-related requirements, and from age one to 15 you attend work-focused interviews only.

Do I get Child Benefit for a child I foster?

No. Foster carers cannot claim Child Benefit for a child they are fostering, because the local authority is already paying towards that child’s care through your weekly fee. At GLF that fee is £479.50 a week for a child under 11 and £507.50 a week for a child aged 11 or over, paid for each week the child is living with you.

Do foster carers get a State Pension?

Yes, but you may need to ask for it. Qualifying Care Relief often leaves a carer with no taxable profit and therefore no National Insurance record for that year. Foster carers can apply for Class 3 National Insurance credits on form CF411A at gov.uk, which protects the year. You need 35 qualifying years for the full new State Pension and at least 10 years to receive any.

Do I need a spare bedroom to foster?

Not always. A baby under two can sleep in a cot in your own room, and we are actively recruiting carers for babies. If you do have a spare room and you rent, an approved foster carer is allowed one extra bedroom under the housing size criteria, and that holds even when no child is living with you, as long as the room is not empty for more than 52 weeks.