I have tried without success to find the answer to this question, so am hoping that a greater brain than mine can help( that probably all of you!)
We have a young man who is 18 shortly,he is in college so LA have agreed to pay continuing care payments for him to remain with his foster carer.
I know he can claim IS,but foster carer is convinced that she can charge him rent and he can claim H.ben as well.
I cannot find anything to confirm or deny this, and she will only keep him if this is the case so don't have the chance to claim it and see, and have had little help from H.ben office.Any thoughts would be appreciated

HB/CTB circular A30/95 gives some useful guidance, and the bottom line is that ex-Foster children should in most cases be able to claim HB and recieve payment (subject to the normal conditions of entitlement being met).

There's even a growing trend for Local Authorities to establish post-18 supported lodgings schemes, and many supported lodgings providers are in fact ex-Foster carers in the area I cover.

The LA's payments to the Foster Carer in this particular case may need some unpicking, but there's no reason I can see why they should include any amount towards the cost of accommodation (as there's a reasonable expectation that HB could be accessed). If they do and this is simply an extension of the Fostering Allowance, perhaps the LA need to review thier payments?

Thanks for your reply, our project runs a supported lodgings scheme in conjunction with supporting people. claiming H.ben for this group is clear. But a problem arose in this area as too many foster carers started to become lodgings providers in order to keep their foster children past 18, the fostering section were obviously unhappy about losing so many foster'beds' and continuing care allowance was born, its time limited so enables fostering section to still have some control over the bed, and when the young person leaves it is still a fostering place .There seems to be a problem with how the continuing care payment is perceived and I cannot find any definition for it. Will go and look at the regs, thanks