How much foster carers earn
We know that our foster carers don't foster for the money, but many can't foster well without it. If you're considering fostering, you need to know how much you could earn so you can work out your family finances.
You could earn from £2,070 to £5,270 per month as a foster carer looking after one child.
Foster carers can foster and work part time or full time or make fostering their full-time career.
Norfolk County Council foster carers receive a competitive fee for their time, experience, and skills, plus an allowance to cover the costs of caring for a child. Fees are based on the needs of the child: standard, enhanced or complex. We know that costs increase as children get older, and our pay scheme recognises that teenagers cost more to care for than toddlers.
We provide foster carers with:
- a weekly allowance set by UK Government ranging from £201 to £267 for each child you care for (depending on their age)
- a weekly fee set by NCC ranging from £260 - £925 depending on the child's age and needs for each child you care for. It includes a holiday allowance, and money for birthday and Christmas presents.
Foster carers are paid on a weekly basis but receive their pay every two weeks. To make it easier to consider if you could afford to foster, our examples are based on a monthly payment.
- A foster carer looking after one child with standard needs will receive between £2,070 and £2,610 per month, depending on the age of the child.
- A foster carer looking after two children with standard needs will receive between £4,140 and £5,220 per month, depending on the age of the child.
- If you care for children with enhanced or complex needs, depending on their age you could receive between £2,650 and £5,270 per month. We'll also provide you with further allowances and an extensive support package depending on the needs of the child.
Additional payments are also available for some mileage claims, some items of clothing such as uniform and prom dresses, and spectacles.
There are different fees and allowances for other types of foster care, such as supported lodgings and parent and child foster care. We will tell you about this in more detail during the assessment and approval process. We will also explain how we work out a child's needs.
There are other opportunities to earn more money once you've been fostering for a while. You could have training and progress from looking after children with standard needs to children with enhanced or complex needs. You could become a regional ambassador, be a panel representative or join a working group.
Find out more about what the different types of fostering mean.
Tax relief
Foster carers only receive a fostering payment when they have a child living with them. Foster carers are self-employed and qualify for an initial £20,440 tax relief annually, plus an additional amount of tax relief paid according to the age of the child.
As an example, a Norfolk County Council foster carer looking after a child aged 7 with standard needs for a whole year would receive about £24,890 and would pay no tax on this amount.
If you looked after two children with standard needs aged 11 to 13 for a whole year, you would receive about £37,540 and would pay no tax on this amount.
A Norfolk County Council foster carer looking after a child aged 12 with complex needs for a whole year would receive about £59,280 and would only pay tax of about £11,550. The total take-home amount after tax would be about £47,730.
All foster carers must register as self-employed within six months of starting to foster and file an annual tax return with HMRC.
GOV.UK explains more about tax arrangements for foster carers and registering as self-employed.
Our recruitment team can explain fees and allowances to you in more detail. They can help you to work out what your fostering finances might look like.
Examples of what you could get paid weekly
Below is a general summary of what the fees and allowances are for someone starting out in fostering. The amounts are the combined weekly sum including the valuing care assessment fee and the basic maintenance allowance:
Child aged 0-10 years old
- Standard weekly sum: £469
- Enhanced weekly sum: £603
- Complex weekly sum: £981
Child aged 11-17 years old
- Standard weekly sum: £564
- Enhanced weekly sum: £642
- Complex weekly sum: £1,058
See some more detailed examples of what foster carers can earn.
Hear from our foster carers
Read about our foster carers, their experiences and the support they have received from Norfolk Fostering Service.
Fostering case studies (Go to Hear from our foster carers)Contact us
If you think you have the patience, understanding and skills to become a foster carer, we would love to hear from you. Norfolk Fostering Service is part of the Foster East network. Read more about fostering for the Council.
Contact Norfolk Fostering Service
