We have been finding that many foster carers have been misinformed as to their position by the Helpline.

We have been pressing for change to the advice given.

If you come across the situation you may want to refer to www.litrg.org.uk under Latest News.

You may wish to get in touch with the Family Law Practitioners Group via the Law Society about this issue. In care proceedings it is not uncommon for there to be an issue whether or not to grant a full care order or an assisted residence order, the former being very onerous (ie police checks to stay over with friends etc) but financially generous to the foster carer, the latter being practically better but in the past not financially viable to recieve discretionary payments because they counted as income for benefit purposes. The Tax Credit system is very generous in this respect.