Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make a comparative assessment of the level of Universal Credit payments made to foster carers with the prior system of (a) Working Tax Credit and (b) Child Tax Credit.

No such assessment has been made. Whilst the UC child element won’t be paid if the child or qualifying young person is looked after by a foster carer, the allowance and fees received by foster carers in return for fostering are not treated as earnings and are fully disregarded for the purposes of calculating entitlement to Universal Credit. The rules differ to how WTC and CTC treated the income.