Payments, Support and Training

Payments

We know that the main reason people foster is to make a difference, but it is important to also understand how the finances of fostering work to see whether fostering can work with your own situation.

We believe that the financial package for fostering should recognise and reward the challenge that’s why the City of Wolverhampton Council uses a payment structure that recognises the skills, experience and expertise of foster parents to meet the needs of children and young people in care which rewards parents who care for more than one child.

New foster parents looking after one child will receive fees and allowances from £244 to £488 per week depending on the child’s age. Additional allowances are also received for each child’s birthday, Christmas and holidays.

Fees and allowances increase according to training and level of experience of each foster parent and how many children are being cared for. For example a foster parent with three years’ experience and completed the third level of training, looking after a sibling group of 3 children would receive fees and allowances from £940 to £1,162 per week.

Fostering payments are subject to additional tax allowances on top of personal tax allowances, making, in most cases, payments tax free. We signpost all potential foster parents to HMRC.