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4.13.4 Management of Finances

Contents

1. General Principles
2. Criminal Injuries Compensation
3. Receiving a Testamentary Benefit or Bequest and the Process of Rebate
4. The Child’s Possessions
5. National Insurance and Benefits
5.1 National Insurance
5.2 Benefits
6. Cash Assistance and Gifts to Looked After Children and Their Families

 
1. General Principles

  1. For a child or young person who is on a Care Order, the management of their property or funds, including those arising from a testamentary bequest, (an endowment under a will), will be the responsibility of the Children's Services Division as corporate parent, expressed on a day-to-day basis by the allocated social worker. The child or young person should (age appropriately) be entitled to have a say in discussions concerning the disbursement and management of their property.
  2. The Children's Services Division is not entitled to solely manage the property or funds of children or young persons who are on a Supervision Order or Accommodated under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989. In this case, the child (as age appropriate) and persons with Parental Responsibility will be responsible for the disbursement and management of their property.
  3. Legal Services will provide more detailed information on how to manage a child’s property or funds. (Any contact with Legal Services may only be made with the agreement of the team manager.) It is essential for social workers to understand that in whichever legal category the child stands, any activity concerning their property or funds should be guided by the principle that the child is in trust to the local authority and therefore, any decisions should be taken with the child’s best interests in mind, according to the general principles of the Children Act 1989.
  4. Full and adequate discussion should be conducted with line managers, service managers (where appropriate), and anyone with Parental Responsibility before any decision concerning a child’s property or funds is made.


2. Criminal Injuries Compensation

2.1

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme is a government compensation scheme that exists to award financial reimbursement where physical or mental injuries are caused by a violent crime. The award will:

  • Compensate (in certain circumstances) for past or future lost earnings or special expenses caused by a violent crime;
  • Compensate (in certain circumstances) for the death of a close relative as a result of violent crime including (in some cases) compensation for the lost earnings of the deceased.
2.2 The scheme may be relevant to children or young people who were injured as a result of violent crime and may also be available, depending on the circumstances, to children or young people who have sustained mental or physical injury as a result of past or present abuse.
2.3 The scheme is run by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority and operates for injuries sustained in Great Britain. Northern Ireland has its own scheme. Generally speaking, legal advice is not required to make an application to the scheme but this should be discussed with line managers before an application is contemplated.
2.4 Full details of the scheme including eligibility, legal definitions of injury, etc, and procedures for making an application can be found in the document, Criminal Injuries Compensation Guide, available on the CFIR, and on the CICA website.

Social workers contemplating making an application to the scheme on behalf of a service user should read the document and/or look at the website before commencing an application.


3. Receiving a Testamentary Benefit or Bequest and the Process of Probate

A child who received a benefit or bequest under a will be subject to the laws of probate in the usual way. The allocated social worker will need to obtain advice from Legal Services (subject to team manager agreement) on the procedures to be followed and how to support the child during the process of probate.


4. The Child’s Possessions

4.1 All efforts should be made to look after the child’s possessions that will follow them between placements. Social workers should ensure that these possessions, which may include items of great sentimental value, are protected from damage when in transit between placements.
4.2 It is permissible to store a child’s possessions in council offices but they should be kept safely under lock and key and a record made of all items that are stored, and this list checked when they are retrieved either by the child or by a member of their family, where appropriate.


5. National Insurance and Benefits

5.1

National Insurance

  1. Issuing of a National Insurance (NI) number is done automatically where someone, usually the birth mother, is in receipt of Child Benefit. Once a young person reaches the age of 15 years, the Child Benefits Centre notifies the Contributions Agency of the Department of Work and Pensions which issues the NI number three months before the young person’s 16th birthday.
  2. However, for a Looked After Child, no one will be in receipt of Child Benefit so the allocated social worker must apply to the contributions agency for an NI number six months before the 16th birthday. This must be done by requesting a Form CA3530 which should be filled in and returned to the agency. The request must be made in the name of the Director of ECSL on departmental headed paper and addressed to:

    DWP Contributions Agency
    New Registrations
    Newcastle-upon-Tyne
    NE98 1YX

  3. The National Insurance number card should be kept in a safe place as this forms part of the young person’s official documents and will be needed when a child applies for a job, benefits or other official purposes.

5.2

Benefits

There may be benefits available to Looked After including Accommodated Children, or care leavers. A document outlining the principles of the Benefits System and setting out the main benefits and procedures for applying can be found on the CFIR.


6.  Cash Assistance and Gifts to Looked After Children and Their Families

6.1 The Children's Services Division is responsible for providing cash assistance to children or their families in line with their general duties under the Children Act 1989 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. In addition, there are arrangements for Christmas and Birthday gifts to be provided to children and young people who are Looked After.
6.2 However, outside of these formal means of giving cash assistance or gifts, there must be no private arrangements between a social worker or line manager and an individual child except by agreement of the line manager. This is in order to safeguard the worker. The assumption is not against the giving of a gift but that any such action should be discussed and recorded in order to avoid any allegations that may arise in the future, for example, of favouritism.

End