There are around 200,000 children being raised by kinship carers across the UK. Kinship carers are grandparents, older siblings and other relatives and friends who step in to care for children, many of whom would otherwise be in the care system.
You may be interested in these active petitions
49% of kinship carers have to give up work to take on the children (Family Rights Group Survey). This often pushes the household into poverty. Some kinship carers are being hit by the new child tax credit limit. Kinship carers already raising two children can't now claim child tax credit for any baby to whom they then give birth. This penalises, for example, young women raising their teenage siblings following their parents' death, who now can't claim child tax credit for their own baby.