How Much Do Foster Carers Get Paid? A Plain-English Guide to Allowances
Money is one of the first questions almost everyone asks about fostering, and it’s a perfectly reasonable one.
Opening your home to a child is a serious commitment of your time as well as your heart, and you need to know that you can do it without putting your own household under financial pressure.
The trouble is that the answer to “how much do foster carers get paid?” genuinely isn’t simple. A lot of what you’ll find online is either vague or presented in a way that makes one fostering service’s figures look better than another’s.
So here’s the plain-English version, with real figures and no small print hidden at the bottom.
Fostering allowance and fee: what’s the difference?
Fostering payments are often described as having two elements.
The first is the fostering allowance, which is intended to cover the costs of caring for a child — things such as food, clothing, heating, travel, activities, pocket money and the ordinary additional expenses of family life.
The second is a fee, which recognises the foster carer’s time, skills, experience and responsibilities.
Some fostering services show these as separate amounts; others combine them into a single weekly payment. That’s one reason headline figures can be surprisingly difficult to compare.
It’s also important to check whether an advertised amount is per child, whether it includes the child’s allowance and whether it’s a standard rate or a specialist fostering rate.
What do foster carers actually receive?
There is a national minimum fostering allowance in England, which varies according to the age of the child and where the foster family lives.
For 2026/27, the Government’s minimum weekly allowances for the Rest of England range from £176 per week for a child aged 0–2 to £267 for a young person aged 16–17.
These are minimum allowances towards the cost of caring for a child — they aren’t necessarily what a foster carer will actually receive.
The Fostering Network argues that the real cost of caring for a child in foster care is considerably higher. Its recommended allowances for 2026/27 are:
- £251 per week for a child aged 0–4
- £343 per week for a child aged 5–10
- £434 per week for a child aged 11 or over
Independent fostering agencies will often have their own payment structures, particularly where carers have additional skills or are caring for children with more complex needs.
Which brings us to the figure that matters if you’re thinking about fostering with us.
How much does Little Acorns pay foster carers?
At Little Acorns, our standard fostering allowance starts at £440 per child, per week.
Depending on the child’s needs and circumstances, our standard fostering allowance can increase to £660 per child, per week.
Different types of fostering attract different rates. For example, Parent and Child fostering starts from £700 per week, reflecting the additional responsibilities involved.
We also provide additional payments around birthdays, Christmas and the summer holidays, helping carers meet some of the extra costs that naturally arise at those times of year.
So, for example, a Little Acorns foster carer looking after one child on our standard rate would receive:
£440 a week — equivalent to £22,880 over 52 weeks if a child remained in placement throughout the year.
A foster carer approved and appropriately matched to more than one child would receive a payment for each child in placement. This means the total household fostering income can be considerably higher.
The exact amount you receive will always depend on the type of fostering you’re providing, the number of children in placement and their individual needs. We’d much rather explain exactly what would apply to you than advertise a large headline figure that only applies in particular circumstances.
Is fostering income tax-free?
This is one area where foster carers receive particularly favourable treatment.
For tax purposes, foster carers are treated as self-employed and can use a special tax scheme called Qualifying Care Relief.
For the 2026/27 tax year, the qualifying amount starts with a fixed £20,440 per fostering household.
On top of that, you receive additional tax relief for every week — or part of a week — that a child is in your care:
- £435 per week for each child under 11
- £515 per week for each child aged 11 or over
If the total fostering payments you receive are below your qualifying amount, you won’t normally pay Income Tax on your fostering income.
If your fostering income exceeds the qualifying amount, that doesn’t mean the whole amount suddenly becomes taxable. There are different ways of calculating any taxable profit, and tax is generally only relevant to the amount above the relief available to you.
The result is that many foster carers pay little or no Income Tax on their fostering income.
You do, however, need to register as self-employed with HMRC and complete a Self Assessment tax return. Everyone’s circumstances are different, so we’d always recommend taking appropriate tax advice if you’re unsure.
Will fostering affect my benefits or State Pension?
This is another concern that causes some people to rule themselves out unnecessarily.
Becoming a foster carer doesn’t automatically mean losing your benefits, but fostering can affect entitlement depending on which benefits you receive and your individual circumstances.
If you’re receiving benefits, you should tell the organisation that pays them that you’re receiving fostering payments and check how fostering would affect your particular claim. A benefits calculator or specialist benefits adviser can help you understand the position before you make any decisions.
There is also help with your National Insurance record. Foster carers can apply for National Insurance credits, which can help protect their entitlement to the State Pension while they’re fostering.
So don’t assume that being on benefits, approaching retirement or worrying about your pension means fostering isn’t possible. It’s much better to work through the actual figures first.
Money isn’t the reason — but it shouldn’t be an obstacle
Mick Davis, who’s fostered with Little Acorns for seventeen years, thinks the fostering sector can sometimes be unnecessarily coy about talking about money.
“It almost seems like an elephant in the room, that people don’t want to talk about money, but the reality is that we all need to live, and the costs are more than adequately covered.”
His point is a fair one.
People don’t open their homes to children simply for the money. But foster carers are taking on a demanding and responsible role, and the financial support needs to make that role sustainable.
Being open about fostering payments doesn’t diminish the reasons people foster. It means someone who’s considering fostering can make an informed decision about whether it works for their family.
That’s particularly important for people whose own children have grown up and left home. They may have the time, experience and spare bedroom to foster, but understandably need to know what it would mean financially before changing their working arrangements or lifestyle.
We look at that stage of life in more detail in our article on fostering after your children leave home.
So, how much would you receive?
The honest answer is that it depends on the type of fostering you provide and the children you’re caring for.
But you shouldn’t have to make an enquiry without any idea of the numbers.
At Little Acorns, our standard fostering allowance starts at £440 per child, per week, with higher payments available according to the type of placement and the child’s needs.
If you’re considering fostering, we’re very happy to talk you through what the payments would look like in your circumstances — including allowances, tax and the practical financial implications — without any obligation to take things further.