Emergency Maintenance Allowance : Contents
Child not supported
For Emergency Maintenance Allowance, you can consider as a dependent child any child whose parents are unable, or in exceptional circumstances, unwilling to support that child.
When a client is caring for a child that is not their own, consider the following:
- can the client be considered as the parent of the child?
- what are the reasons they are caring for the child?
- what are the parents circumstances?
- how long does the client expect to care for the child? (the legislation doesn't tell you how long the child is expected to be in the care of the client but it should be expected to be a long term arrangement, not just a few weeks)
- if long term, are more formal arrangements being considered (for example adoption)?
- do the parents of the child have the ability to contribute to the cost of care?
- is the child a qualifying child for Unsupported Childs Benefit or Orphans Benefit?
For help to determine whether parents may be unable or unwilling to care for the child, see:
