shared lives

[hannah40]

Hi we are going through the vetting process of becoming shared lives carers which is similar to fostering but we will have a vulnerable adult living with us .does anyone know if shared lives carers money gets taken into account with tax credits as i have spoken to tax credit hot line and they said they dont class it as income so it wont get taken into account only our wages will and i said it is a full time job so they still said no it doesnt.it is classed as fostering does anyone have experience of rules on fostering or shared lives and tax credits?thank you.

[bednobs]

well hannah, i would presume the tax credit people know

[bednobs]

and in fact, is it really income? i seem to remember it dosen't cover your expenses even from a previous post

[hannah40]

thanks for replying bednobs.we are not doing this project yet we are going through training ect.with what we do at the moment rent a room scheme to a young person and baby is classed as income for tax credits as you receive support money ,that is why i thought shared lives must be classed as income but as you say tax credits adviser must know!!

[Kassee]

Hi Hannah40 - I dont know anything about shared lives carers but I do foster. The fostering association actually hold tax and benefits sessions so we as foster parents are well aware how to manage our money when it comes to the tax man/ benefits or tax credits. To be honest the tax credit people don't always know the rules, and sometimes I have had to be quite forceful about it, and ask to speak to someone higher up.

As a fostercarer, you can consider yourself either unemployed and claim income support, or in full time employment and claim WTC. There is a set formula for working out your earnings, and the threshhold is quite high, if you earn over a certain amount, it counts as earnings. But you do have to be paid quite a lot of money before you reach this bracket.

[amanda1978]

Hi I'm in exactly the same situation and I'm looking for the same answer. I too believe that it's not classed as an income so doesn't need to be declared, however the when looking on the HMRC website it states that you need to work at least 16 hours to get tax credits or 24 if joint. It mentions self employed too. Apparently there is a link to a host of shred lives info on the HMRC website.
Good luck
Amanda