§ 35. Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what proportion of foster pay is treated as income when it comes to computing benefit for foster parents; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergFor those national insurance benefits to which an earnings rule applies, only any reward element of a fostering allowance is taken into account as earnings; the element paid to reimburse expenses is disregarded. For supplementary benefit purposes, all298W payments received for fostering fewer than four children are disregarded entirely. Where there are four or more foster children, half the amount by which the payment received for each child exceeds twice the supplementary benefit scale-rate for a 16 to 17-year-old is taken into account as earnings.