Prescribed Category in mother and baby placement

Client is aged 20 has new baby and has been placed in mother and baby placement with Foster Carer (they are actually Foster Carer for baby) whilst mum learns how to take care of her baby.

Social Services have advised Foster Carer to claim the CHB as she has primary and financial responsibility which means mum is not in a prescribed category for IS. She would not qualify for ESA and cannot seek work as whole point is she is at home learning to care full time for baby.

Any thoughts as mum has no income.

Where it has been in my client’s best interests I’ve always successfully argued that they are not responsible for children where those children are looked after children under the Children Act 1989.  So, if that acts against the client here, she could claim JSA and restrict her hours of looking for work to 16 per week.  If the baby is a looked after child then, although the mother retains parental responsibility, the local authority has the legal responsibility and has entrusted that responsibility to the foster parents and not the mother.  So, the foster parents should be taking care of the child during any period the mother is required to look for work, or eventually, to work.  The arrangement with the LA must be a flexible one.

Thanks for responses, did suggest JSA to client’s Advocate when she contacted us but she didn’t think client would be available for work.

Will get back to Advocate to let her know looks like this is only realistic option.

We have seen a few cases like this recently… no IS entitlement, no ill health - so no ESA, supported programme requires almost 24/7 attendance so no availability for work and no JSA.

I don’t see any problem with mother claiming child benefit and IS.  I have advised claims in such circumstances without any undue difficulty.  There were a couple of threads on such claims sometime ago:

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forum-archive/index362d.html

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forum-archive/index50ba.html

You will see that I was asking for confirmation of this approach a number of years ago as I wasn’t confident when I first came across the issue..

For CB the rules go:
Para 1 of Schedule 9 the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act precludes claims for any child in the care of a local authority.
However, Reg 16 of the Child Benefit Regs disapplies that rule where the child lives with the claimant for certain periods.  16(3) precludes such claims, but only by ‘the carer’, i.e. the person with whom the child is placed.

For IS:
The mother is responsible for the child under reg 15(1) as receiving CB and not precluded under Reg 16 as baby is living with her.

Child tax credit rules are drawn differently and there is no entitlement where the child is in accommodation under Pt III of the Children Act 1989, as I assume yours is, funded by the local authority.

Tony

A colleague has raised very similar query, in this case the mother is 16 years of age and in foster care. She has claimed Child Benefit and Child Tax credit for her baby but has been refused Income Support as a lone parent (or more specificaly the local JC+ have apparently advised her she is not eligible).

If she was a Care LEAVER and a lone parent then reg 2 of the Children Leaving Care SS Bens regs would apply and she could get IS as a lone parent but she hasn’t left care yet. It seems logical that she would not be entitled to IS as in some senses the same needs are being met by the local authority but I am not sure where this is explicitly set out in legislation, the nearest I can find is in 13(3) of the IS regs where it talks about a claimant not being eligible if there is someone acting in the place of her parents- am I right in this assumption?

Pete

If she is still in education she is entitled under Reg 13(2)(a) as a lone parent - LA acting in place of parents doesn’t apply to that provision, only to later parts of Reg 13 where claimant is claiming while as orphan, estranged etc. 

CB should also be OK but almost certainly not eligible for CTC as LA will be paying towards the cost of the baby’s placement.

Tony

Sorry, I should have made it clearer, the client is not in education at all

Then there is nothing to stop her claiming as a lone parent in the usual way.  CB and CTC as above.

Tony