Foster carer pay and allowances in the UK explained

Two different payments: the allowance and the fee

Foster carers are not employees and do not get a salary. Your money comes in two parts. The allowance is for the child: it covers the everyday cost of food, clothes, toiletries, travel and activities, and it rises with the child's age. The fee is for you: it recognises your time, skills and experience, and is sometimes called a skills payment or professional fee.

No service is legally required to pay a fee. The Fostering Network says the two elements should be kept separate and clearly labelled, and warns that some services quote one combined package that hides the split; the Welsh Government instructs every provider to keep them apart. Almost all of it is paid per child, per week, and most of it only arrives while a child is living with you.

What services actually pay: the published totals

The minimum allowances below are the floor for the child's costs, not what you receive. Services publish their own weekly totals for one child, usually combining the allowance and your fee. On 27 October 2026 we checked the rates on the websites of 22 independent agencies and 9 council services. The middle agency figure runs from about £460 a week for a newly approved carer to about £652 with experience or for a child with higher needs, within a published range of £400 to £1,000. Councils publish from about £375 to £697, with a wider spread.

Those figures are per child, per week, and only while a child is living with you. They depend on the child's age and needs, your training level and, for councils, a published fee ladder. Our payments page lists every service we checked with a link to its own page, and the pay calculator turns a published figure into a yearly total and shows how much of it is tax-free.

The national minimum allowances for 2026-27

Each UK government publishes a minimum weekly allowance (in Scotland, a recommended one) by the child's age. The Fostering Network notes that paying it is not a legal duty and is not monitored nationally, so treat it as a benchmark rather than a guarantee. The figures below are from the official pages we checked in October 2026.

The Fostering Network argues that all four minimums fall short of a child's real cost; its recommended 2026-27 rates are £251, £343 and £434 a week for ages 0 to 4, 5 to 10 and 11 and over.

• England, 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027 (GOV.UK): London £205 a week for ages 0 to 2, £208 for 3 to 4, £233 for 5 to 10, £266 for 11 to 15 and £309 for 16 to 17; South East £195, £203, £223, £255 and £298; rest of England £176, £182, £201, £227 and £267.
• Scotland, 2026-27 (Scottish Government): the Scottish Recommended Allowance (SRA) is £177.68 a week for ages 0 to 4, £206.71 for 5 to 15 and £283.35 for 16 and over, after a 3.8 per cent inflation rise backdated to 1 April 2026.
• Wales, 2026-27 (Foster Wales): £229 a week for ages 0 to 4, £208 for 5 to 15 and £260 for 16 to 17. The Welsh Government sets the rate by annual letter to councils and independent providers as the minimum any Wales-registered service can pay.
• Northern Ireland: nidirect (updated March 2026) still shows the scale from 1 April 2024: £149 a week for ages 0 to 4, £166 for 5 to 10, £187 for 11 to 15 and £219 for 16 and over. The Department of Health has since published 2025-26 and 2026-27 rates, and The Fostering Network reports a 3 per cent uplift for 2026-27 backdated to 1 April 2026, so check the Department's current scale.

Council or agency: how the money differs

Every child in care is the responsibility of a council (in Northern Ireland, a health and social care trust), which runs its own fostering service and also buys places from independent agencies. Scottish Government guidance explains how it works: a council's contract pays an agency a weekly rate covering the child's allowance, the carer's fee, management costs and extras; the agency then pays its carers and sets its own allowances and fees.

Council schemes usually publish a fee ladder tied to training and experience. Wigan's scheme from April 2026 pays its entry tier exactly the English minimum, with newly approved carers on roughly £296 to £418 a week per child and more for experienced carers; Surrey pays a skills fee of about £113 or £227 a week on top of the allowance. Foster Wales says council carers there typically receive around £400 a week in total.

No official source shows agencies paying more or less across the board. Foster Wales notes that some agencies encourage carers to give up other work. The real difference is often how often you have a child placed and what you get when you do not.

What is and is not paid between placements

The allowance follows the child. Stirling Council says it moves with the child, including to a short-break carer, and Surrey says the same for respite. When a placement ends, the allowance ends.

Whether any fee continues depends on each service's policy. Edinburgh pays full-time carers a retainer for up to four weeks between placements (twelve for specialist carers). Stirling pays a sliding retainer after a placement ends: one week's fee if you are still without a child at three months, rising to six weeks' fee at twelve months. Wigan pays a £150 weekly retention fee for up to four weeks during step-down introductions and an emergency retainer to carers who keep a bed free. Many services pay nothing.

Policies also cover gaps during a placement: Edinburgh, for example, allows a retainer of up to twelve weeks while a carer is suspended during an investigation. GOV.UK says there is no minimum allowance once a young person is old enough to leave care at 18, even if they stay with you, and Scotland's SRA does not cover continuing care.

Tax: how Qualifying Care Relief works

For tax, foster carers are self-employed. GOV.UK says to register with HMRC when you start fostering and file a Self Assessment return each year; Foster Wales adds that only one person per household needs to register.

Most carers pay no tax on fostering income because of Qualifying Care Relief: a fixed amount per household per tax year plus a weekly amount per child. For 2026-27 the fixed amount is £20,440, with £435 a week for each child under 11 and £515 for each child aged 11 or over. GOV.UK shows these figures and the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group dates them to 2026-27 (2025-26: £19,690, £415 and £495). Under the Finance (No. 2) Act 2023 they rise every April with inflation.

Example: a 14-year-old all year and an 8-year-old for ten weeks gives £20,440 plus £26,780 (52 weeks at £515) plus £4,350 (10 weeks at £435): £51,570 tax-free. Allowances, fees and retainers all count as receipts. At or below your qualifying amount your profit is nil, though you still file a return; above it, you pay tax on the excess or deduct actual expenses instead. Part-weeks count as whole weeks, and the fixed amount is scaled by days if you are a carer for part of the year. HMRC's helpsheet is HS236.

National Insurance and your State Pension

Fostering rarely creates a National Insurance bill, but it can leave a gap in your record. HMRC's manual says that since 6 April 2024 nobody is liable for Class 2 contributions: if your fostering profit after the relief is at or above the small profits threshold you are treated as having paid them, and if it is below you can pay Class 2 voluntarily to protect your State Pension. Alternatively, GOV.UK says foster carers may be entitled to National Insurance credits, which the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group explains are Class 3 credits for carers who neither pay nor are treated as paying Class 2. Decide early; gaps are harder to fix later.

Benefits: the headline rules

GOV.UK says fostering can affect your benefits and you must tell whoever pays them that you get a fostering allowance. Fostering payments are not counted as income for means-tested benefits: Foster Wales lists Universal Credit, Housing Benefit and tax credits among those that disregard them. The charity Kinship adds that you cannot claim the child element of Universal Credit or Pension Credit for a foster child, though your own children are unaffected, and Foster Wales notes that a partner's earnings still count and savings above £16,000 rule out Universal Credit. If your foster child gets Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment, you may be able to claim Carer's Allowance. GOV.UK's fostering pages do not explain how Universal Credit's work-related requirements apply to carers, so use a benefits calculator or ask Fosterline first.

How to compare what services pay

Allowances, fees and policies vary so much that the only reliable comparison is to ask every service the same questions and get the answers in writing.

• The allowance and the fee separately, per child and age band, checked against your nation's minimum.
• What the fee depends on (training, experience, type of fostering) and how you move up a level.
• What is paid with no child placed, during respite and holidays, if a child is in hospital or missing, and during an allegation.
• Extras: birthdays, religious festivals, holidays, first clothing and mileage. Wigan pays separate allowances for these; GOV.UK says you may be able to apply for them.
• How many weeks a year carers like you typically have a child placed.
• Tax relief is per child per week, so two packages with the same annual total can leave you in different positions.

Across the UK

England

GOV.UK publishes the minimum by region and age and updates it every April; for 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027 it runs from £176 to £309 a week, and you may get more depending on the child's needs, how many children you foster and your skills. Fosterline gives free advice to carers in England.

Scotland

The SRA, agreed between the Scottish Government and councils, covers the allowance only: fees are set by each service, and independent agencies set their own allowances and fees. It does not cover continuing care. Legislation passed in March 2026 provides for annual uprating and more transparent payments, with detail to follow in regulations.

Wales

The Welsh Government sets the minimum by annual letter and requires allowances to be kept separate from fees, which are set locally. All 22 council services operate together as Foster Wales under a National Commitment on training, support and rewards.

Northern Ireland

Health and social care trusts pay the allowance every four weeks under a Model Scheme benchmarked to England's minimums, and nidirect splits it roughly 40 per cent food, 25 per cent household, 18 per cent clothing, 10 per cent pocket money and 7 per cent travel. Some carers also get a fee for particular knowledge and skills. Tax and National Insurance rules are UK-wide.

Common questions